Arts/Literary
UBE: The Way Forward
Book Review
Titles: (i) Universal Basic Education:
Grassroot Perspective (152 pages)
(ii) Primary Education Control And Development Policy in Nigeria (56 pages)
Author: Sam Nsitem Obisike, Jp
Reviewer: Jacob Obinna
Publishers: Wellington Publishing Company,PHC.
For more than a decade now, the authors in Nigeria have been trapped in a cycle of distress due to the ruthless profiteering activities of pirates. The situation is not helped by the lack of relevant copyright laws, absence of political will and inadequate legislations against such infringement. Worse still, the indigenous publishers are not protected by government’s policies which tend to encourage preference for use of foreign textbooks over their local counterparts in schools.
Inspite of this unfavourable situation, the indigenous authors have refused to budge. They have rather continued to publish books to complement government’s efforts towards enthroning qualitative education in the country. One of such authors is a seasoned educationist in Rivers State, Sir Sam Nsitem Obisike who launched two books recently on the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Nigeria. Titled “Universal Basic Education Grassroot Perspective and Primary Education Control and Development Policy in Nigeria”, the books give the reader an insight into the UBE and primary education programmes in the country which the author refers to as Nigeria’s first attempt at effective administration of primary education in Nigeria, starting with the introduction of Universal Primary Education (UPE) launched by the Federal Government on September 8, 1976. This programme, among other things was to redress education imbalance and provide equal access to education for all Nigerian children.
Unfortunately, many factors led to the collapse of the UPE programme. These included inadequate planning, poor projection of pupil’s enrolment, lack of a careful coordinating, supervising and monitoring agency, recruitment of poorly trained teachers, insufficient and inadequate classrooms and lack of appropriate legislations to back up the scheme.
As at 1996, the nation’s education statistics showed that 1.9 million school age children were not enrolled into primary schools while as at 2000, estimated over 20 million Nigerian school age children were not in school. Since then, the figures have been on the increase.
This sad state of affairs and the vision of the federal government on the importance of education as a vital instrument for positive development led to the launch of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) on 30th September, 1999 to replace the UPE. This new education programme is to provide for Nigerian children, the foundation for sustainable life long learning with emphasis on reading, writing and numeracy skills. It also covers a wide variety of formal and non-formal education activities and programmes designed to provide functional literacy.
The first book, Universal Basic Education: Grassroot Perspective, which has 152 pages is divided into ten chapters. It serves as a veritable tool for effective implementation of the UBE programme to avoid the pitfalls that characterised the UPE system.
Chapter one focuses on the meaning and scope of UBE, failure of UPE, importance of UBE and the various international agreements which Nigeria is signatory to, such as the New Dechi 1992 which the E-G countries agreed to, in order to reduce the incidence of literacy, and the Amman Re-affirmation of 1995 that confirms everyone’s commitment to the Jontein Declaration.
Others include: The Durban (1988) African States Commitment to Basic Education and the OAU Decade of Education of Africa which have influenced the formation of education policies in the country.
Chapter two dwels on management of the education sector in Nigeria before UBE and future prospects, while chapter three is a review of past efforts by various governments.
Chapters four to ten are basically issues bordering on funding and empowerment of UBE at the local government level, supervision, monitoring and evaluation of UBE as well as continuous teaching and strategies for administration of UBE at the LGAs and implementation of guidelines. The author concludes the book with the assertion that “No sacrifice will be considered too great in ensuring the sustainability and success of UBE”.
The second book, “Primary Education Control and Development Policy in Nigeria” has seven chapters and discusses wide range of issues on historical background of primary education in Nigeria. Chapter one highlights some of the laws and efforts made at bringing formal education to the doorstep of every Nigerian such as the 1882 Education Ordinance for British colonies which applied to the Lagos colony, 1887 Second Education Ordinance with reference to colony and protectorate of Nigeria which corrected some of the ills and became the foundation upon which future educational ordinances in Nigeria were built.
Chapter two deals with school mapping and micro planning with the aim of making education more relevant to the needs of the local communities in a developing country like Nigeria, while chapter three focuses on concept of leadership and change in primary schools and organizations which dates back to the colonial era. Chapter four dwells on supervision and evaluation strategies for UBE programme, and various attempts made in the past to increase the literacy rate in Nigeria.
The attempts, as analysed by the author, include the 1955 Comprehensive Education Laws of Western Nigeria, 1957 UPE Programme of Eastern Region, UPE of 1976 and the present UBE programme of the federal government. These programmes were aimed at equipping individuals with knowledge, skills and attitudes which will enable them live meaningful and fulfilling lives, contribute to the development of society and derive maximum social, economic and cultural benefits from the society.
Chapters five to seven give an indepth overview of important issues of primary education and the community, effective management of primary education in Nigeria, and offers solutions to the myriads of problems besetting UBE programme in Nigeria.
The author concludes the book with the view that the UBE is yet another giant step at giving Nigerians equal opportunity to education and to increase the literacy level of every Nigerian child.
Going by the robust and statistical presentation of the issues in the various chapters of the two books, it is obvious that the UBE programme is well analysed and treated by the author which makes the books a veritable tool for the UBE teachers, pupils administrators of the programme and other educational institutions in the country especially at a time like this when the country is once again trying to reviewing its education sector.
It is the idea of God that family should exit. Children form part of the family. God loves family so much that Jesus was born into the family of Joseph.
Everyone’s family is good and important. Children should not look down on their family whether they are rich or poor.
Children should respect and honour their family and foster love among their siblings. They should work together and make peace in the family. They should always stand in the gap. It is good for family members to carry all along since everyone may not be doing well.
The Christianity that children learn is practised in family. Faith-based organisations do a great job in moulding children’s character. Those are the behaviours that children exhibit towards siblings in family.
Every child born in a family is there for a purpose. A baby born into a family is supplying something. It may be joy, wealth and so on. Everyone is important in a family.
Adolescents who have graduated from school but may not be contributing financially can do one or two things at home. You can engage in preparing meals at home while parents are away for a job or business. Contributing in house chores will go a long way to relieve parents of stress after a day’s job.
What do you contribute to your family, especially during holidays both in nuclear and extended family?
The family you were born is constant but friends are temporary. You can decide not to continue in friendship but you cannot cut off your family. No matter how bad you think your family is and you decide to leave home, you must surely return. Your friends can harbour you for a while.
The child’s first identity comes from the family. What the child learns first comes from the family.
Family is the centre of love and care. People have started playing down on marriage because of neglect on basics of family. Marriage starts today and and the next few months, it is threatened. Respect for family plays a crucial role in marriage.
No child grows without parental control and influence. If a child refuses to grow without taking instructions from parents, he may grow up being wild. There are consequences when children do not obey their parents. There are those who want to be rebellious against their parents. They should know that their length of days are tied to their parents.
Your bioligical parents know you more than every other person. There is the wisdom and knowledge your parents have that you do not so it is proper to listen to them before choosing carriers both in academics and job. A young man or woman can choose who to get married to, but a greater role in the choice of who to marry and the marriage proper comes from the parents.
They know what is best for you. No matter how modern trends will influence you and prove it wrong, parent is the key. No one can love you more than your parents because they are your blood.
A lot of parents have been traumatised due to the fact that children they nurtured and trained turned their back on them at older age. Children should not abandon their parents for any reason.
As you grow up, situations may arise in marriage when you decide it is over with your spouse, but no matter the level of provocation with your parents, they will not despise you. Parents will also play a role in that regard. Problem arises in every family but how it is handled matters a lot.
Some children honour their mentors more than their parents. Although there are parents who shy away from their responsibilities. It is important that parents take full responsibility of their children. You cannot bring a child to the planet earth and refuse to perform roles as a parent. But parents may not quantify what they spent from childhood to adolescence. That is a blessing children cannot get from another person.
There are people who have attributed their failure in life to the fact that their parents, especially mothers are witchcraft. It is wrong to feel that your mother is instrumental to your failure in life. The only way to success is hardwork.
Let money not determine the level of love for your parents. Wherever a child goes, family is constant.
Eunice Choko-Kayode
Naturally, when a child is born, it is the role of the father and mother to decide a suitable name for the child. The husband and wife normally discuss and suggest the English or vernacular name of the baby.
But sometimes, when a baby comes into a family, grandparents hearts are usually filled with joy to the extent that they want to answer present, by giving their own names not minding the fact that the biological parents have given theirs.
This happens mostly when the marriage is an inter-tribal one. It also happens even in intra-tribal marriage. Grandparents want equal representation as far as naming a child is concerned. They also have special names as a result of circumstances surrounding the birth of the child.
This is still happening till date.
A lot of people have viewed this in different ways but there is nothing wrong about it. The most important thing is that the child bears as many names as he or she can. But one thing is certain, the child must bear one name in school.
Should circumstance determine a child’s name?
Women who are more emotional are always eager to name their children considering the circumstances surrounding the child’s conception and arrival.
The issue of grandparents naming a child comes up mostly when it is the first of the family.
In naming children by some parents in the olden days, they named their children according to the days in the week in which they were born, like Sunday, Monday, Friday and so on.
You may be shocked to hear that whether a child is given 10 names by parents or grandparents, when he or she grows up, will decide to change. There are several cases where some persons decided to change especially when they feel that the names given by their parents and grandparents do not give them joy. If they are not doing well in life, they may claim that their misfortune is caused by the name their parents.
Competition among children in schools be it primary, (kindergarten) and secondary come in different forms. It can be Mathematics , debate, quiz, spelling bee,competition, from organisations like Cowbell, multi-national companies, faith-based organisations among others.
They are organised mostly for selected intelligent ones, the best among their peers to represent a class, school or group. Prizes are normally set aside for the best as well as consolation prizes for runners-up at the end of each session.
The question is, are children willing to accept defeat when they fail? As parents, guardians, can you encourage your children or wards to accept defeat instead of shouting and comparing them with others who may be performing better either in schools or outside.
Some parents may be blaming their children for not doing well in competitions. They will like to tell their children if others who may perform better have ten heads. Those group of parents blame their children for every failure.
For your children to do better in competition, the parents too must have emotional intelligence. When you continue to blame your children for failure, how intelligent are you?
Some parents always want their children to be in the 1st position and unhappy whenever they secure 2nd position. There were instances where children smashed their trophies because they never got the position they wanted to get and their parents supported them.
Children should be able to accept it whether they win or not. They should be encouraged for every performance. Discourage the issue of “shame, shame, shame, shame”.
A parent says she always tells her children to win even if they will fail. Always give them the mentality that they can win. Children should be given the impression that they can win prizes and laurels in every competition.
Parents should not isolate their children from others in the neighbourhood. Allow them to play with others. Don’t threaten your children that you may not pay their schools fees if they fail. Comparing them with others may encourage or discourage them.
Coming first or getting award as a first class student from the university sometimes does not mean that the person is the best. And if the child does not merit any award in the lower classes, does not mean that he can not merit first class also.
It should be noted that coming first in academic competition may not really mean that the competitor will be the best at work place or business.
Accepting defeat is a way to move higher. Even if a child who competed with others did not come first, there are consolation prizes for runners-up. When you advise the child to accept defeat, you are encouraging her to win in next competition.
Remember all children cannot be on the same knowledge level Their learning abilities defer.
Eunice Choko-Kayode
