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8 big moments in Nigerian education for the year

These moments underscore the true state of education in Nigeria.

These moments underscore the true state of education in Nigeria and by the time you finish reading this, you'll understand why Nigerian universities hardly make top five hundred in the world university ranking.

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Here's the list of the big moments in the Nigerian Education system in the last 12 months.

LAUTECH Crisis

The lingering crisis at the Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomosho marked the beginning of the chequered fate of the education sector in 2017. The crisis which propelled the lecturers of the institution to embark on an indefinite strike action lasted for over a year while students were consigned into idleness just because of the disagreement between the government and the academic staff of the institution.

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The students realizing they are wasting away took to the street to protest and implore Oyo state governor, Senator Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi to address the issue. And after some dramatic moments between the students and the governor, the constituted authority promised the students their school would be re-opened before the end of January.

ALSO READ: Does anyone remember Edo teacher who could not read well?They opened the school gate in February only for it to be locked again in April. Another strike action began.

Queen's College Death

Authorities of the Queen's College in Lagos are yet to be washed clean of the sex scandal involving a mathematics teacher and a student in 2016 when another scandal shook the school. This time, it was more tragic than the earlier episode.

In March, two students of the unity school in Yaba, Lagos reportedly died as a result of the contaminated water in the school while 16 other students were hospitalized due to the severity of their cases.

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The SSS3 students who were not affected by the contamination suffered a terrible blow in another form as the Ministry of Health ordered the closure of the school indefinitely few days to the commencement of their final exams.

Igbonla Kidnap

On May 25, 2017, two days before Children's Day celebration another version of the infamous Chibok girls tragedy played out in Lagos as kidnappers stormed Igbonla Model College, Epe and abducted six boys from the school.It was ostensibly a devastating experience for the six students as their captors imprisoned them for two months before releasing them on Friday, July 28 after demanding a ransom of N400m.

IRK VS CRK Saga

The controversies that come with religion in Nigeria found its way into education-related issues in June. The Federal Ministry of Education in an attempt to rejig school curriculum grouped Christian Religion Knowledge and Islamic Religion Knowledge under National Values Curriculum.

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Christian Association of Nigeria found this move suspicious saying the Federal Government is planning to remove CRK from the syllabus and that the government is planning to islamize Nigerians.

These accusations refused to go away as Nigerians on social media were greatly divided by CAN's unfounded narrative. To clear the air on the issue, the Ministry of Education came out to explain their intention behind the curriculum re-arrangement to Nigerians, and at the end, it turned out to be one of those pre-existing tension fuelled by religious intolerance in our country.

JAMB Cut-off Mark

The JAMB's new cut-off mark announcement in August was a moment that got everybody talking. Even illiterates and artisans whose children are seeking admission into University and polytechnic partook in the conversation.

In August,  the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) reduced Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination cut-off mark to 120 for University admission seekers and 100 for Polytechnics and Colleges of education across the country.Institutions like UNILAG, University of Ibadan and other first choice Universities strongly resisted the move saying they would not consider any candidate who scores less than 200 for admission. However, the JAMB Registrar, Prof Is-haq Oloyede later explained that the cut-off point is not meant to qualify candidates for admission rather, it is meant to rate them so as to address admission quota system in Nigerian universities.

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ASUU/ASUP Strike

An academic calendar without the Academic Staff Union of University and Polytechnic going on strike over one thing or the other is not complete in Nigeria.

The 2017 ASUU strike did not come as surprise because it has become a ritual. So in September, the union announced the commencement of an indefinite nationwide strike.Again, the strike threw Nigerian university students into idleness and were only at the mercy of the Federal Government and ASUU to be in the lecture room again.Sadly, immediately ASUU called off its strike action, its Polytechnic counterpart, ASUP shut down all schools under its control for 15 days to protest Government' failure to honour their agreement.

Kaduna Teachers' Competency Test

The most popular event that outshines and swallows all other stories in the education sector for this year sprouted from Kaduna state. It is a saga that exposed the depth of the rots in the education system in the state.The Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai in a bid to assess the competency of primary school teachers in the state conducted primary four tests for the teachers. It later turned out that 21,780 teachers would have to be relieved of their job because according to the government they failed the test and as such should not have any business with teaching.

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The dramatic accusations and counter-accusations that followed the sack of the teachers and recruitment of another 25,000 people to replace the incompetent teachers is simultaneously hilarious and ludicrous.First, the pupils were made to protest the sack of their teachers on the streets while teachers took demeaning steps further to the state assembly to protest and vandalizing properties.

Second, the governor in a bid to justify his claims about the teachers' incompetency released their text scripts on Twitter. Meanwhile,  the Nigeria Union of Teachers  and the Nigeria Labour Congress in Kaduna disagreed with the government saying the scripts with low scores belonged to carpenters and other artisans employed by the same government.

2018 Budget allocation for Education

With all the issues facing Nigerian education system, Nigerians expect an administration that promised to change the status quo would give the sector a boost in its Budget. But to the dismay of all us, the 2018 Budget did not offer any hope for the Nigerian education system as only 7% percent of the Budget was allocated to the sector as against the 26% recommended by the United Nations.

Nigerians kicked and complained bitterly about the government's attitude towards education, but it seems Nigerian Universities and Polytechnics will have to endure another series of industrial action next year.Finally, 2017 has not been a good year for the education sector. It is 365 days of strike and crisis for the sector. We did not seem to register any happy moments apart from Nigerian students abroad conquering the world with outstanding academic performances. While students at home break records in Universities where it is seemingly impossible to graduate with first class degrees.

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