Posted: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The nation's dwindling fortunes in the education sector, in recent years, elicited serious national disquiet against the background of mass failures in public examinations. Various arguments have been advanced for the reasons behind this rather disturbing trend. While some Nigerians have blamed the ugly situation on parents and the students themselves, others blamed teachers, most of whom, they say, do not possess the minimum prerequisite for teaching. Yet others laid blame at the doorstep of government for not reviewing the nation's policy on education to address the problem. Whatever it is, we dare say, all these contribute, one way or other, to declining quality of education in the country.
The setback in the education sector affects not only primary and post-primary institutions, but also tertiary institutions. The National Universities Commission (NUC) boss, Prof Julius Okojie, said recently that the training of teachers to improve upon their output and quality of teaching was part of the strategies adopted under the new road map geared towards improving standards in the system.
Last week, the president of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Nwachukwu Awuzie, raised alarm over the continuing loss of professors to retirement, despite government's promise to raise retirement age from 65 to 70 years. He said, "In 2009, part of the agreement between ASUU and the federal government was to increase the retirement age of professors from 65 to 70 years. This was later announced by the then Minister of Information and Communication, Prof Dora Akunyili, but till date no law has been enacted to back it up."
What is indeed bothersome is ASUU's concern that between 10 and 15 professors go into retirement every month. This, if true, portends a grave danger to university education in the country. It then means that annually the country loses between 120 and 180 seasoned professors to retirement alone, not to talk of other inevitable factors such as brain drain, resignation, death or incapacitation. There is no doubt that it takes a good number of years and resources to train a professor. And so if this set of best brains are lost at such rapid rate, definitely it would have weighty consequences to the health of teaching in our universities. The NUC has pegged the minimum qualification of a university teacher at PhD. With the rate of exit of the few professors, therefore, there is the urgent need to fill in the gap to avoid collapse of the system, as a good number of them are 60 years and above.
The federal government should do everything within the shortest time possible to ensure that the law shifting retirement age of professors from 65 to 70 years is passed to save the precarious situation. The country cannot afford to lose its best brains so cheaply, especially when they are fit and sound enough to continue rendering service to their motherland. Prof Chinua Achebe who is nearly 80, Prof Wole Soyinka at over 75 – and many of such distinguished scholars – still teach in foreign universities. 70 years, we believe, is not too much for a university teacher who is mentally alert and physically fit to carry out research, supervise PhD theses and even teach rather than allow him to rot away prematurely at 65.
What we are saying is that so long as there is agreement between the federal government and ASUU on the issue of raising the retirement age of professors, the government should honour it without delay. The government must not be seen to pay lip-service to such serious looming national crisis hitting our university education. Again, as noted by the ASUU president, the new law should also encompass automatic employment for students who bag first class grades and help them obtain PhD degrees in order to help boost the dwindling fortunes in the academia. This will go a long way towards enhancing the quality of teaching, thereby improving the general decline in the academic circles.
The setback in the education sector affects not only primary and post-primary institutions, but also tertiary institutions. The National Universities Commission (NUC) boss, Prof Julius Okojie, said recently that the training of teachers to improve upon their output and quality of teaching was part of the strategies adopted under the new road map geared towards improving standards in the system.
Last week, the president of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Nwachukwu Awuzie, raised alarm over the continuing loss of professors to retirement, despite government's promise to raise retirement age from 65 to 70 years. He said, "In 2009, part of the agreement between ASUU and the federal government was to increase the retirement age of professors from 65 to 70 years. This was later announced by the then Minister of Information and Communication, Prof Dora Akunyili, but till date no law has been enacted to back it up."
What is indeed bothersome is ASUU's concern that between 10 and 15 professors go into retirement every month. This, if true, portends a grave danger to university education in the country. It then means that annually the country loses between 120 and 180 seasoned professors to retirement alone, not to talk of other inevitable factors such as brain drain, resignation, death or incapacitation. There is no doubt that it takes a good number of years and resources to train a professor. And so if this set of best brains are lost at such rapid rate, definitely it would have weighty consequences to the health of teaching in our universities. The NUC has pegged the minimum qualification of a university teacher at PhD. With the rate of exit of the few professors, therefore, there is the urgent need to fill in the gap to avoid collapse of the system, as a good number of them are 60 years and above.
The federal government should do everything within the shortest time possible to ensure that the law shifting retirement age of professors from 65 to 70 years is passed to save the precarious situation. The country cannot afford to lose its best brains so cheaply, especially when they are fit and sound enough to continue rendering service to their motherland. Prof Chinua Achebe who is nearly 80, Prof Wole Soyinka at over 75 – and many of such distinguished scholars – still teach in foreign universities. 70 years, we believe, is not too much for a university teacher who is mentally alert and physically fit to carry out research, supervise PhD theses and even teach rather than allow him to rot away prematurely at 65.
What we are saying is that so long as there is agreement between the federal government and ASUU on the issue of raising the retirement age of professors, the government should honour it without delay. The government must not be seen to pay lip-service to such serious looming national crisis hitting our university education. Again, as noted by the ASUU president, the new law should also encompass automatic employment for students who bag first class grades and help them obtain PhD degrees in order to help boost the dwindling fortunes in the academia. This will go a long way towards enhancing the quality of teaching, thereby improving the general decline in the academic circles.
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