“Primary and Secondary Education form the foundation upon which tertiary education is built”.
Without a doubt, any country that aspires to greatness in any sphere of its existence must ensure that education remains of paramount importance. In realization of this, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended) in Section 18 enjoins the Government to ensure that there are equal education opportunities at all levels and that the Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy. Even though the provisions of the said section and others like it which fall under the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy as contained in Chapter II of the Constitution have been held not to be enforceable in a court of Law, its inclusion in the Constitution leaves no room for doubt that the Government is expected to be guided by the ideals contained in the provisions of the section.
Constitution
Nigeria’s educational system can be described as three tiered made up of the primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Each tier or level is designed, as is the case in other countries, to meet certain needs of the student in his educational progress. Of these levels I consider the primary and secondary levels to be of great importance as they essentially form the foundation upon which the tertiary level is built. Indeed the low quality exhibited by University graduates is mainly due to the failure or near total collapse of the primary and secondary levels of education in Nigeria. It was therefore shocking to read that a large number of teachers in kaduna State had failed exams ordinarily meant for primary four pupils. Reporting the incident, a national daily on the 11th of October 2017, stated as follows: “About 21,780 teachers in Kaduna State have failed a test for the primary four class set for them to examine their competence.
As a result, the Kaduna State Government said it is shopping for 25,000 new teachers to replace those who failed the test as part of its plans to restore dignity and quality to education.
Governor Nasir el-Rufai unveiled the planned recruitment when he received a World Bank’s delegation in Kaduna on Monday.
“We tested our 33,000 primary schoolteachers, we gave them primary four examination and required that they must get at least 75 per cent but I am sad to announce that 66 per cent of them failed to get ..the requirements.
“The hiring of teachers in the past was politicised and we intend to change that by bringing in young and qualified primary schoolteachers to restore the dignity of education in the state,” the governor said.
Regrettably the same scenario had occurred in 2013. At that time, a report in The Punch Newspaper titled “Teachers who fail Pupils’ exams” published on the 1st of March 2013 stated as follows:
“ The Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Usman Mohammed, at an education summit two weeks ago, that 1,300 out of 1,599 of the state’s teachers failed woefully in simple arithmetic and basic literacy tests is alarming. The tests are ordinarily meant for primary four pupils but the teachers’ woeful performance is a further proof that the foundation of education in Nigeria, which the primary school system exemplifies, has been dangerously eroded.
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