Lagos – A former Education Minister, Prof. Nora Obaji says non-adherence to carrying capacity in the country’s universities is part of the challenges facing the education sector.
Obaji spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the 45th annual inter-house sports competition of the Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, on Monday in Lagos.
She said the practice of admitting beyond requirements was one major anomaly that must be addressed by concerned authorities.
“If you ask me, I will say there are too many challenges facing the sector and we cannot achieve anything meaningful from there if we do not go back to the basics.
“Our universities, for instance, must emphasise on carrying capacity. What we get today as graduates are an offshoot of what we have in the system, and I think we need to look inwards.
“When schools are over-populated, it automatically makes learning cumbersome.
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“There is the tendency that teachers cannot effectively monitor activities of all the students at given point in time.
“When I was there as the Minister of Education, we introduced what was called the carrying capacity in these universities so that it should not be a question of just admitting students,’’ she said.
According to Obaji, admitting beyond the carrying capacity also leads to over-stretching of the available facilities and also constricts space for conducive teaching and learning.
The former minister also lamented the dearth of teachers in schools at the basic level of education.
According to her, the primary and secondary schools in the country are in need of well-trained and qualified teachers, and no system can survive, especially at the foundation level, without teachers.
“Without teachers, not much can be done. Look at the Colleges of Education. They are no longer teaching primary education.
“They are even advocating a conversion of the colleges to Universities of Education.
“When you take a look, you will see that almost all the universities in the country have Faculties of Education, so why must we now try to establish Universities of Education?
“I think the basic thing to do is to encourage our colleges of education in the area of teacher production and get to lay emphasis on primary education in their curriculum,’’ she said.
Obaji said that government must take proactive measures in encouraging boarding facilities in secondary schools for students and also accommodating teachers.
“I think in this respect, government must equally wake up to their responsibilities in providing boarding facilities in our secondary schools.
“This is because people learn a lot in the boarding house. We should also make it top priority in providing teachers accommodation right on the school premises.
“Apart from saving man-hours on the roads, it also ensures effective teaching on the side of the teachers, and promptly too.
“It also makes for easy bonding between them as teachers are readily available to assist these students whenever the need arises,’’ she said.
Obaji said that quality and effective teaching could only take place if the teacher was well rested and not over-burdened or distracted by happenings around his environment. (NAN)