Sociology Of Education: A Prerequisite For Teachers Education —Prof. Uche AzikiweSociology Of Education: A Prerequisite For Teachers Education —Prof. Uche Azikiwe Recently, Professor Uche Azikiwe, wife of the first president of Nigeria, who also lectures at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, became the first national president of The Association of Sociologists of Education (NASE) in Nigeria. She had an interactive session with journalists, where she talked about activities of NASE. She also sheds light on the cause of low patronage of sociology as a course of study by students, and other issues. BOLAJI OLARENWAJU writes:
For a long time, sociology is a course not being sought after by many students in Nigeria despite the importance and significance of the course to the nation building. This is partly due to the fact that there was scarcity of jobs for professionals in that discipline and also because it was not being offered at the postgraduate studies before.
Recently, after many failed attempts, the Association of Sociologist of Education (NASE) finally came on board and Professor Uche Azikiwe, a former first lady of Nigeria who lectures at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, recently emerged as the first National President of the Association.
Talking about sociology, Azikiwe, said Sociology of Education as a discipline is not popular in the developing world because of scarcity of job opportunities for graduates in the area of study. In fact, when it comes to students' choice of course for university education, Sociology of Education is one of those courses that record low patronage of candidates.
She noted that despite the fact that sociology of education is a core course in the University Education, it was not being offered at the postgraduate level in the past because there are few specialists in the area; she however added that the course is now being advertised at the postgraduate level in many universities in Nigeria.
Speaking further, she said the association has been designed to be virile like others existing association by linking it up with other Sociologist of Education Associations in Britain and America; as well as collaborate with other sister-disciplines such as Social Studies, Sociology and Anthropology.
She also enumerated the decisions and recommendations of the association to move the nation forward. According to her the following communiqué issued at the end of the association's conference has been forwarded to the Federal Ministry of Education, National University Commission (NUC) and other educational related agencies.
Several calls have been made to government to completely sweep aside the reform initiatives of the erstwhile regime, caution should be exercised to ensure that the baby, is not thrown out with the bath water.
The reform agenda had capitalist intention anchored on privatization, some steps by government went out too far, neglecting the disadvantaged and so became obviously anti poor.
Teachers and students are critical stakeholders in the education sector, they were obviously neglected in the planning of the reform, and consequently became passive
objects and victims in their domain
The reform agenda was multi-focal, only the initiatives that lend themselves to commercialization and private person financial accumulation are being actively pursued.
The curriculum at all levels require urgent renovation, attention appears to have been paid only to nomenclature and physical matters only, for example, change of names from primary and junior secondary schools to basic education, and re-painting of classroom.
Nigeria desires to be among the 20 most developed nations by 2010, the curriculum of basic education has to be more pragmatic and productivity oriented.
It is desirable to adopt the basic education structure, it is equally important that secondary education be strengthened to cater for all segments of the Nigerian society.
Conference recognizes the right of the government to administer its high education system as it deems fit or advised, it is incumbent on the civil society to prevail on the government to cause her to stop the on-going/proposed merger of Federal Polytechnics and Colleges of Education with Universities close to them as this could stem the tide of collective, intellectual and broad based national development.
Based on its observation, the conference therefore recommended that:
Colleges of Education be redesignated such that a handful of them would be upgraded to degree awarding status, some specialize in Primary Education Studies, while others remain as they are.
National Commission for Nomadic Education be redesignated as National Commission for the Education of Migrant Groups, and Universities should be encouraged to mount degree programmes with herding.
Instead of handing over the Federal Government Colleges to private individuals' government should evolve more critical supervisory and financial auditing mechanism for the management of schools.
For the huge government investment in ICT to be fruitful, government must guarantee the supply of electricity to schools, including those in the rural areas.
Society has to evolve a system of education that is less examination dependent, that is one, which places continuous, qualitative assessment above terminal and quantitative. In the current atmosphere of over-crowded classrooms, the conventional examination system only cultivates mal-practices.
The accounts of the State Basic Education boards be specially looked into but not left to the reform initiatives of the FME. Basic Education Teachers should be made to do qualitative research work and be assessed for doing so. i.e. research and publication should be part of the condition for employing and promoting teachers. No matter how minimal they could be expected to have 3 publications in 12 years.
Using the six geo-political structure, government should make six universities purely postgraduate universities. Others would however be free to run postgraduate studies.
Government should, as a matter of urgency and priority, increase the funding of education from its present low level to the globally recommended level for developing nations.
She also noted that the association plans to groom quality teachers who are well grounded in sociology of education, which is a necessary tool for effective teaching and learning processing.
“A good pass in sociology of education at Colleges of Education/Universities for one to graduate as a trained teacher is recommended. Moreover, Teacher Registration Council (T R C) should make it mandatory that a good pass in Sociology of Education is prerequisite for one to be registered as teacher.” She said.
She equally noted that not much was allocated to education in the 2008 budget. This she said is not up to United Nation's recommendation of 25 percent of national budget and anything short of that will be like a drop in the sea.
Also, shedding light on the emergence of NASE as an association is Prof Clautius. Daramola of the University of Ilorin. According to him, the association had made frantic but unsuccessful efforts to start before now. He cited the example of when his mentor, late Rev. father Joseph Fagbowuro called a conference of the Association at Jos in 1992 but only six of them attended. However, he was quick to add that the conference was successful in floating the Association's Journal.
He added that another conference of the Association held in 2002 at Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Ijanikin, and Lagos was marred by poor attendance. He also disclosed that the maiden conference in 2007 was successful as 101 members that cut across academia and Governmental institutions attended and thought provoking papers were delivered.
Prof. Daramola stated that the problems of Education in Nigeria is multi dimensional and that is why there is need for the discipline to contribute its own quota to the development of the nation.
He said the association is now ready than before to be an active participant in educational development. According to him, “Education is the bedrock of any national development. therefore, adequate attention must be paid to the provision, maintenance and sustenance of education. It is true that the budgetary allocation in 2008 is an improvement over the past years but the fact remains that education has been under funded over years and that is why qualified Nigerians are leaving the shores of the country for greener pasture overseas. Some felt that governments at all levels are not ready to help the system. They are not ready to recognize these experts. The fact is that you cannot gloss over education. It has to be total as Nigeria is adequately blessed with the resources. All we need is the will of our political leaders. As it is, the system is decaying; all the stakeholders must not leave any stone unturned.”
He also added that if the Federal Government addresses all the recommendations made by the Association at its maiden conference, it would improve our educational standard and product. He therefore called passionately on members who are Head of Departments in various institutions to ensure that prospective students are encouraged and offered admission.
On the daily increase in private Universities, he expressed delight but expressed a wish that it would not turnout to be “a commercial enterprise to squeeze hard-earned money from parents who could hardly afford it making it an exclusive preserve of the elites and superrich.”
He berated privatization as it excluded the masses and placed them at the mercies of the few rich. “This has further widened the gap of inequality in the society.” He added.
With the successful birth of the Association, the next conference would hold at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in October 2008. Stakeholders in the education sector would be eager to hear more from this new Association under the tutelage of the wife of the first Nigerian President who is a professor in her own right.
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