What manner of education?

I got a phone call last week from one of the avid readers of this column; a student in one of the tertiary institutions in Kwara State, (whose identity I'd rather keep close to my chest) who said my support for the ban of sales of handout by lecturers in higher institutions of learning in the state (in reference to the piece: Handout of pain, misery) is misplaced. She hinged her justification for the status quo to remain on some issues which she broached with me while our telephone conversation lasted. Chief among this issues is student population explosion in her institution of learning. According to the undergraduate, individual lecturers can not possibly cope with the outrageous number of students taking their respective courses and thus the need for handout arises. Continuing in her argument, she averred that students in her institution preferred to buy course handouts/textbooks than attend classes due to the attendant discomfit occasioned by the large population. She further said the student populations outstrip available lecture spaces and teaching resources.

Indeed, it is a common sight to see students hanging around lecture theatres during lectures in a particular institution in the state due to large class population without provision for communication gadget. This results in lack of concentration among students and as such their main aim of being in school, which is to learn, is defeated owing to this unsavoury development. So also this brings about diminishing return on the mission for which these citadels of learning were established.

She confided in me that her class is populated by a whooping 1,500 students! With a ratio of 1 lecturer to over a thousand students one shouldn't expect much from such system. This no doubt affects teacher-student relationship as well as effective teaching and learning.

The un-conducive teaching environment is discouraging even to lecturers who then devise means of taking advantage of the situation for economic gains such as sales of course handouts and textbooks to students. Imagine selling a course handout at the rate of N750 to about 1,500 students in a class. This situation also gives room for lecturers to "sell” marks for cash or other items to students. Some lecturers take to other businesses within or outside the academic sphere.

Lecturers become overburdened with crowded classrooms and excessive grading responsibilities. Many of them hardly read students' examination scripts let alone assignments, due to overbloated number of students. Lecturers are faced with so many tasks at a time. Imagine a lecturer marking hundreds of assignments. Hence, oftentimes marks are awarded arbitrarily with little or no regard for actual knowledge displayed by students.

The quality of supervision and assessment of students academic project is also poor as a result of this problem. Little wonder our higher educational institutions churn out half-baked graduate-people who are intellectually and psychologically unfit for the labour market. Like the cliché goes many students these days go through school without the school going through them. The fault one can boldly say isn't entirely theirs the system is there to blame. Poor teaching and learning outcomes is what huge student population births.

The student population in certain tertiary institutions in the state has overstretched the infrastructural provisions but the management seems not to be bothered by the ugly trend. All they are interested in is how to shore up their revenue base even at the detriment of the affected students.

Indeed every institution of higher learning is faced with problems during the periods of admitting fresh students into school. The problems of admission cannot be over emphasised. Various interests come to play during the admission process. Applicants jostle for limited spaces available.

In recent years, the numbers of students sitting for qualifying examinations into tertiary institutions has increased at a very high rate, as a result of the zeal to acquire western education. As such there is pressure on various tertiary institutions of learning. Year in year out the number of students admitted into Nigerian tertiary institution increases and astronomically too and giving rise to attendant problems. Over a million students sat for the recently conducted JAMB examination. So taking care of these huge number of students is an uphill task for concerned institutions of learning. However, some higher institutions throw decorum to the winds and focus on pecuniary gain of admitting more than the carrying capacity of the existing infrastructure. This exponential growth in population further strains the structures on ground. The cost of this action is lower education quality which on the long run has adverse effect on national development, since education is said to be the bedrock of any country's development. So, what becomes of the youth who are regarded as future leaders when school manager would rather sacrifice their academic wellbeing for selfish gains. Selfish gain in the sense that some school heads are more interested in getting accolades for generating more revenue than producing quality products.

Some school administrators have turned themselves into financial managers, who boast of how they have strengthened the financial status of their respective institutions (at the expense of the students). And as such, they do not pay much attention to issues of academics. Thus their institutions turn out academic misfits. This isn't good enough.

There is an urgent need for concerned authorities to look into this problem with the objective of finding lasting solution to it.

School managers should not eat more than they can chew by admitting more than the number of students that the infrastructure in their respective institutions can support. They should put into consideration the number of spaces available in each department and the lecturers before determining the total number of students to be offered admission. By so doing the existing infrastructure and teaching resources won't be overstretched. For institutions that already have overbloated population, the management should look in the direction of infrastructural expansion and development to aid effective teaching and learning. This is because every student in Kwara counts for good education.

#standpoint