MAJOR OBSTACLES FOR THE UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION (UBE)

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In one of the earlier units, you learnt how the UPE programmes were introduced in the old Western Region and the Eastern Region. You also learnt how they ran into difficulties as a result of inadequate planning, lack of funds, inadequacy of teachers, classrooms and other things. Later you learnt how the Federal Government introduced a National UPE programme in 1976 and the problems encountered. In this unit, we are going to discuss some obstacles that may prevent us from realizing the objectives of the UBE programme if they are not adequately taken care of.

 OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit carefully, you should be able to:

•  identify at least five obstacles that could prevent the realization of the UBE objectives. 
• Suggest ways of removing the obstacles. 

 Personnel and Administration

The Quality of Teachers

The importance of teachers in any educational system has been clearly explained in the National Policy on Education. In that document it is stated that, no system of education can rise above the quality of its teachers. Therefore, it is a fact that a well qualified teaching staff is the first step in any attempt to train a skilled man power in any society. In other words, there cannot be any appreciable progress in any system of education with poorly trained teachers.


One of the major problems of the previous UPE programmes in Nigeria centred on the quality and quantity of teachers. You will still remember how the lack of adequate number of trained teachers led to the appointment of untrained teachers to teach in our schools. In an attempt to produce the much needed trained teachers in large numbers, crash programmes were introduced. This was the case in the 1976 National UPE programme. As we once mentioned in one of the earlier units, the doors of our Teachers Colleges were thrown open to whoever cares to come in. This led to the admission of reluctant, school failures and those who had no other places to go, into the Teachers Colleges. As if this was not enough, the duration of courses was in some cases reduced while admission requirements were deliberately lowered. All these led to the production of half-baked, unsure, reluctant and undedicated teachers. Thus, the two major problems of teacher education for primary education in Nigeria as identified by Taiwo (1982) were experienced during the time. The problems are the poor quality of teachers produced from the Teachers Colleges and their low output. This is not to say however that all the teachers produced were bad. In fact, some of the primary school teachers were very good and dedicated. But, majority of them were not particularly professionally competent. This really affected the standard of teaching and learning in our schools. Thus, there were many primary school products of the UPE programmes that were not literate in either their mother tongues or English language. Although the poor quality of teachers may not be the only factor responsible for this, yet, it could be regarded as one of the most important factors.

So far, we have seen how poor teachers’ preparation affected the quality and output of the UPE teachers. This shows that we should not just be after the mass production of teachers. As much as we need a large number of teachers to teach in our schools, we should also be careful not to throw quality into the winds. The question now is, has the UBE taken this into consideration? In other words, have we learnt anything from the past mistakes of embarking on a crash programme of teacher education? There should have been a long term planning for the training of teachers before the introduction of the programme. The recently introduced 'emergency' training programme for the UBE teachers by NTI may not be the ideal thing. How are we sure that the people being recruited for the 'emergency' training programmes are not the reluctant ones like those trained for the UPE programme?


One other problem associated with the quality of teachers is the type of in-service programmes organized for them. For teachers to be up to date with new developments in the teaching and learning process, they have to be exposed to regular in-service programmes. It could be a long or short term courses. For example, there could be long vacation courses/workshops on different methods of teaching the various school subjects, classroom management and control, school community relationships and so on. Experts could be invited on the various areas while the teachers are given special allowances for the course. If in the UBE programme this has not been done, then it should start immediately.

Since teachers are central to the success of any educational programme, we must do all we can to improve their quality. Nothing is too much for us to do in order to raise the quality of our teachers. If we want to make any appreciable success in the UBE programme, the training and re-training of teachers is a must.

Lack of Dedication by Teachers

We have just discussed the problem created by the crash programme introduced during the UPE programme. In an attempt to produce enough teachers for the programme, the admission requirements into the Teachers Colleges were relaxed. This made it possible for people who could not have been qualified to come in. Among those who came in we had the reluctant ones. That is, those who naturally did not want to become teachers but were forced to come into Teachers Colleges. So, these people became reluctant teachers. They had divided interest hence they could not give their best as teachers. In many cases, some of those who came into teaching then merely used teaching as a stepping stone. As soon as they were able to secure a better job or admission into a tertiary institution, they left the classrooms without any notice. There were even some of the teachers who were not regular in school. This is very peculiar to teachers in the rural areas. Many school teachers in the rural areas often make special attendance rosters among themselves. In other words, if there are four teachers in a rural school, two will be in school from Monday till Wednesday while the remaining two will come on Thursday and Friday. The following week, they will alternate the
arrangement. This makes the pupils to suffer as the two teachers in the school may not even be able to cover the whole days work for a class let alone all the classes in the school.



In the Urban schools, many of the teachers are engaged in some business activities. Some even come to school to sell their goods to their colleagues or pupils. The implication of this is that such teachers have little or no time to make adequate preparation for their lessons. There have been many cases of teachers who do not prepare any lesson notes at all while some use the school periods to write their notes. This lack of dedication on the part of teachers could sometimes not be their fault. In a situation where salaries were not paid regularly, or where their take home pay was not enough to take care of their family, naturally teachers would look for other sources of income. Similarly, the poor condition of service which also led to poor retirement benefits often forced many teachers to do some running around while in service. By so doing, they are sure of a fairly comfortable living after retirement even when their benefits are not paid. These and other problems often lead to teachers not being dedicated. The pupils as you will expect are always the worst for it as they will not be having the necessary teaching and learning activities to make them permanently literate.

If the UBE programme is not to have such undedicated teachers, the necessary precautions must be taken. First, the recruitment of teachers for our classrooms must be based on merit. That is, only those that are professionally qualified and suitable should be employed. This means that proper interviews should be conducted for those that applied for teaching after their qualification. I think if care is taken to conduct proper interviews for teachers before appointment, most of the bad ones would have been eliminated.

As regards teachers in the rural areas, efforts should be made to make them more comfortable. This can be done by providing them good accommodation in form of staff quarters. In the same way, they could be paid special rural allowances like it is done for some other professionals. If this is done, many people who often reject postings to the rural areas will not do so. Moreover, with good accommodation, they would be encouraged to stay there and work throughout the week.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

Identify some of the teacher factors that could create obstacles in the achievement of the UBE goals and objectives. Your answer should include the following:

•  poor quality of teachers for training low output of teachers 
• lack of dedication to duty by teachers 
• absenteeism among teachers 
• poor conditions of service, etc 

 Inadequate Planning and Supervision

We have just talked about how the crash programmes have led to the poor quality of teachers produced for the UPE programmes. This idea of using crash programmes in the training of teachers could be regarded as part of the inadequate planning which led to the failure of the UPE program. If we know we are introducing a programme like the present UBE, at least, the first three or more years should have been devoted to planning. In this case, the training of the teachers could have been embarked upon. Therefore, by the time the programme is taking off, there would have been some good number of teachers on ground. It is not a good planning to start the programme before embarking on the training of teachers.


Another problem that made adequate planning difficult during the UPE programme was the lack of reliable statistical data. For example, in the 1955 UPE programme, arrangements were made for 492,000 pupils but over 800,000 showed up in the schools when it started. This problem came up again in the 1976 UPE programme. These problems arose mainly because of inadequate data about the number of primary school age children we have. Even now, I do not think we have an accurate statistical data for instance to show how many pre-school age children or primary school age children we are going to have next September.

Therefore, in order to have an accurate data on which the planning of the UBE is to be based, there is need for proper awareness campaign on the need to register all births and deaths. The officers in charge of such records should be more dedicated and should keep adequate records. It should be made compulsory for all health institutions to register all births and deaths and send same to the Department of Statistics at regular intervals of three months or six months. Moreover, officials of the statistics Division of the National Population Commission should go to the villages to register their new babies. No meaningful planning can be done without a reliable statistical data.

There is also the problem of inadequate supervision of schools in Nigeria in recent years. Those of us that are old enough can still remember that during the period immediately before and after independence, inspectors were frequent in schools. However, in the past two decades, things have not been the same again. Many schools in the rural areas are not visited by inspectors for years. In most cases, the head teachers of such schools are merely asked to come to either the local government or state head quarters to supply some necessary information about their staff, students and available facilities. This arrangement often gives room for the falsification of figures being sent to the State and Federal Ministries of Education.

What do you think is responsible for this? Well, many Inspectors of Education have neither personal nor official cars with which they could pay regular visits to the schools. In some cases, most of the rural roads are not motorable for a greater part of the year. Therefore, the inspectors have no choice than to remain in their offices and rely on whatever information they receive from the head teachers. For the UBE to be successful there should be adequate supervision. The head teachers should be empowered to discipline any teacher who is found wanting in the performance of his or her duties. In recent years, many teachers tend to disobey their head teachers because of their special connections. This should not be so. The supervision of schools should even be encouraged more among the head-teachers who are always on ground.

They should be given the necessary powers to do so.
On the other hand, the school inspectors should be increased in number and given the necessary facilities to work with. They should be encouraged to visit schools at least twice a month. This will not only ensure that teachers do their work well, but also give them regular first hand information about each school. Moreover, they will also be able to interact with the local communities and encourage them to support their children in school. The UBE, with its wider coverage needs more supervision if the stated goals and objectives are to be realized.