Lawrence Enyoghasu
Dr. Femi Adedina is the Deputy Provost of the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Ijaniki, Lagos State.
As he celebrated his 60 years and 42 years in the classroom, he spoke with The Education Report in his usual candor and forthrightness.
Why is College of Education not attractive to candidates seeking admission?
When I finished my school certificate where I graduated with grade II but my father didn’t have the money to send me to the university, then the Obasanjo regime introduced the Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme and found out that there were not enough teachers and he employed us. In that one year I was paid salary, clothed and housed. The best of the best that were indigent were transferred into grade II teachers and that set is now mature, some of us are now PhD holders.
That is the way to get good teachers, are we doing it? Another thing is that many people do not understand that there are many ways to the market. I went to a college of education and left there because I never wanted to be a teacher. I left in my second year to study theatre arts in the university. I am happy I am a teacher today. The quality we had then was the best. You can’t say that now because not so many people want to come to the college of education.
The university has this thing about it being more graded than the college of education, so also the lecturers. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has done more harm than good to education. ASUU fights for what it wants and don’t carry the ones that are below them along. They will not call academic staff in the college of education, polytechnic and not even the secondary schools teachers. However education is interconnected. If you ignore one, you will have problem at the top. Teachers are meant to teach in the primary and secondary schools and because we don’t have good teachers in the college of education, you find out that the few who are produced by the colleges of education continue to degrade the standard. It is these poor teachers that will teach in the secondary and primary schools. It is the problem that led to university doing examinations for their master students.
When we applied for masters degree programme, there were no exams. How many of the policy makers have their children in public schools. The society makes jest of teachers and have lost societal value. What are teachers paid and how are they paid. They are mostly paid last out of all workers.
What about the pupil teacher ratio?
The government alone cannot do it. Those institutions are in communities, and what are those communities contributing to the school? When you look at how the students come about, you will know that the government is handicapped. They came because most people think that there is free education and never thought about adequate education. The people don’t consider how much the state has to do those things. The parents and community need to contribute. When we were pupils, our parent paid. Because they could not pay my fee from class four to class five, I was not allowed to do the mock exam. And I could not pass. Parents were contributing then. Some borrowed to send their children to school. Parents have relented in their children education. Some might say I am not considering the pepper sellers but I ask don’t they do parties in their houses and buy new wears? My father paid through his nose to send me to secondary school. He was moonlighting three jobs; a caretaker, a guard and drycleaner. But as busy as he was, he was interested in our school.
How has election or electoral process affected education?
Voters’ card will solve our problem because the aggregate of the voters are the people below mediocre life. If you look into the elections of the country from the 90s; the social economy of the majority who have been voting are below the middle class of the country. The most educated section of our nation doesn’t vote at all but they are the most critical. These are the people who have a lot to lose if the country does not work. If we have their votes, there would be a huge change in political setting and will translate into change in the education sector. These are the people that the politician can’t bribe with stipends and bags of rice. Thank God the Supreme Court has said that civil servants can now join political parties and it is a very beautiful thing. Yes! Civil servants can be corrupt and biased but let them be in the parties and have avenue to bear their grudges. These are the people who could easily mount pressure on their local governments’ shortcomings; why the roads are not good, why the tap is not running, instead of us finding personal solution, we need to think of communal solution. I am not saying we should be radical in our ways; rather we should change things with our votes. It is the power we have. Some people have it because they need it for other means of identification. No! The voter’s card is for us to vote, it is for us to tell politicians that we have had enough from them.