What will become of the Nigerian system of education some years from now?

[Haruna Latifat]

I'm a government school mathematics teacher.

As a matter of fact, I just came out of SS1 classes. We did polygons and basic theorems in geometry in our last class and I gave classwork today, the people who could state Pythagoras theorem weren't up to 5. I learned about pythagoras theorem in primary 5.

Some of them copied from their classmates and copied wrongly because they didn't go over their work. I saw things like 26x90=234. A student in SS1 doesn't know that when you are multiplying numbers that have zeroes in them, the zeroes must be present at the final answer.

Some of them even multiplied whole numbers and wrote answers for me as decimals. Please tell me, how is this possible? How do you multiply whole two while numbers and your final answer is a decimal? How abeg? How?

So tell me, what is the difference with all I've said and what the UNICEF data has said? My students are age 14 and above

As soon as I left their class and came downstairs, tears escaped from my eyes. I am really bothered for our own children. Because these students that do these things would be the ones to teach our children tomorrow.

And the question on my lips is; what will become of the Nigerian system of education 10-15 years from now?

From a teacher.

 

[Paul Adiku]

Good day everyone.
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‎From 2024 till now, we have watched a painful pattern grow in the educational sector of Delta State. Pupils and students being improperly flogged and injured. Wrong concepts being taught. Lateness, absenteeism, and even ghost teachers. Worst of all, we have started calling it "normal."
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‎It is not normal. All is not well.
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‎Last year I raised this, and instead of a solution, I was attacked. But silence will not fix our schools, and our children deserve better.
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‎Many of those employed as teachers were not trained as teachers. An engineer is teaching Economics. A nursing graduate is teaching Home Economics. An Accounting graduate is teaching Chemistry. How do we expect quality from that?
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‎We still have passionate, trained teachers in Delta who are ready to serve, but the door is shut against them.
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‎*The way forward:*
‎1. *Proper recruitment*: Post teachers based on qualification, training, and passion, not connection.
‎2. *Accountability*: The State Ministry of Education must actively monitor schools. Check attendance, check lesson delivery, and check welfare of learners.
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‎Our children are not an experiment. If we do not fix the foundation now, we will keep paying for it later.
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‎Let us speak up, not to fight, but to build. Delta children deserve qualified teachers, safe classrooms, and real learning.