The Sorry State Of Public Education In Imo State

With the way things are going, it appears that Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State has no plans to salvage the education sector in the state. His government prioritizes the interest of the rich to the detriment of the working class and masses.

Every year in Imo, funding is made available, policies are formulated, plans and budgets are approved. And yet there are still schools without any pupil furniture or safe classrooms, teachers are still not being employed and rural schools have few or no teachers.

Local governments have the mandate to participate in basic education but in the state, local government councils do not exist. Local government education authorities receive little funding or relevant training, which constrains the support they can offer to schools. LGA can play a crucial role in funding and supporting quality delivery of education in schools but our LGAs are in comatose.

Public education in Imo state faces several crises. Some of these include leaking roofs, flooded school premises, overcrowded classrooms, unsafe and unhealthy school environment, decaying infrastructures and a curriculum largely aimed at making students acquire skills that will at best in future make them an army of unskilled laborers. But this is not all. There is also the problem of a poorly-motivated and overburdened teaching force.

Test scores are down in Imo , and violence is up. Parents are screaming at school boards, and children are crying on the couches of social workers. Anger is rising. Patience is falling. The numbers are all going in the wrong directions. Enrollment in schools is down. Absenteeism is up. There aren’t enough teachers, substitutes or bus drivers. What then can be news is the fact that the hammer is already being wielded to finally nail the coffin of public education in Imo. This is happening by way of the massive shortage of teachers in nearly all subject areas in public schools coupled with the refusal of the government to do the needful by recruiting new hands to fill in the vacancies.

From one local government to another the same dismal situation prevails. The secondary schools are not necessarily different. All this means that teachers in the state are overworked and are not able to pay enough attention to individual pupils because of the sheer numbers they have to handle. Added to the above is the attendant implication that overwork has for teachers’ health. Little wonder why the standard of education in Imo is on a decline and mass failure on the rise.

Despite hot air and propaganda, these findings show that not much improvement has come the way of public education in Governor Hope Uzodinma’s government. And this is in spite of the fact that he has been in power for five years. Five years ago, when he became the state governor, he vowed to turn Owerri into a mega city. But while talking of transforming Owerri into a megacity, what Uzodinma has succeeded in doing is to divide the city in half, one part for the rich, the other for the poor.

This class polarization in Imo state is graphically manifested in the education sector where for the majority of the city’s poor and working class, the public schools with their collapsing roofs or the mushrooming private schools are the only options they can afford if their children must be educated. The rich, especially the politicians, have no need of public schools since they can easily afford high brow private schools within and outside the country.

Interestingly, the shortage of teachers in Imo schools is not due to the inadequacy of graduate teachers. The problem is that the state government is not employing them. For years, less and less teachers are employed to replace those retiring. For those in service, their pay and conditions are poor and the workload simply terrible. All of these make a career in the teaching profession not to be in the top priority of many young graduates.

Despite propaganda, the reality is that public education in Imo State is in a sorry state.Unfortunately, despite the crisis, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) Imo state chapter has not yet come up with a clear strategy to build a mass movement to challenge the government on these issues. Activists and rank and file members must put a stop to this lethargy of the NUT while teachers suffer terrible conditions and the fate of public education in the state hangs in a balance.

The NUT must come up with a program of actions to confront the government with demand for adequate teaching staff, improved conditions of teachers and better facilities for quality education in Imo schools.

I join others to stand against all attacks on public education in Imo, including those directed at teachers like non-payment of benefits, delayed promotion etc. importantly, all attacks on public education are attacks on teachers, and so far it affects the quality of education. For instance, not only students, but teachers too suffer from the decaying condition many public schools are in. This is because such decaying conditions like overcrowded classes, ill-equipped laboratories and inadequate number of teachers translate into poor working conditions like excessive workload for teachers which itself impacts on the ability of teachers to carry out their basic responsibility effectively.

I join others to call on teachers to demand, in addition to better conditions of service, the building of adequate decent classrooms and recruitment of teachers in order to meet the standard requirement of a maximum one teacher to 35 student class size and also the provision of facilities like well-equipped laboratories and libraries.

I also seize this opportunity to urge teachers to build their union into a fighting and democratic union that can defend their rights and fight against attacks on public education. On the basis of the economic crisis created by the capitalist ruling class and the continuous inadequate funding of the education sector, there are bound to be loads of attacks on public education. This is why it is important to have a vibrant and democratic union of teachers that is capable of leading resistance movements against anti-education policies. Save us oh God.