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PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION AND THE 6-3-3-4 EDUCATIONAL

SYSTEM IN NIGERIA: A CRITICAL (RE)ASSESSMENT

By: Paul-Sewa Thovoethin,

Department of Political Studies, University of the Western Cape,

Private Bag X17, Bellville 7535 Cape Town,

South Africa. E-Mail:3168726@uwc.ac.za Or paulsewanu@yahoo.com

Phone: +27788580086, Or +2348037258409

Being a Paper Presented at the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa Organized

Conference on Globalization, Regionalization and Privatization in and of Education in Africa,

Held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Johannesburg, South Africa, from 12th-13th October, 2012

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Abstract

With the dire need for technological development occasioned by the need

to move with the trend of globalization the Nigerian government in early

1980 introduced what is now popular referred to as the 6-3-3-4

educational system. Under this system a student is expected to spend six

years for primary education, three years for junior secondary education,

three years for senior secondary education and four years for tertiary

education. The focus of this policy is to build technical capacities of

students right from their secondary school level which will prepare them

for engaging more in engineering and technological related courses in

higher institution. To achieve this, the government was expected to equip

secondary schools with modern technological equipments, so that the first

three years of students in Junior secondary is concentrated in the teachings

of technological related subjects. Students are therefore expected to be

exposed to practical application of engineering machines and tools at this

level. Those students who are seen to have talent in technical areas were

expected to be sent to technical colleges established by the government

for further practical trainings, while the remaining set of students were

expected to continue their three years senior secondary education with

adequate focus on technological and engineering related fields based on

the knowledge they have acquired at the junior secondary level. The

interesting aspect of this change in policy was that it was accompanied

with the era of privatization of education in Nigeria. Thus, the aim of the

policy experienced failure from its onset. This was due to the fact that

private owners of secondary schools were unable to acquire technological

machines, tools and expertise required for the achievement of the policy

albeit the continuous reduction in government spending on education.

This work attempts an assessment of the 6-3-3-4 education system in

Nigeria by looking at it dialectical relationship with the privatization of

secondary school education. By doing this an attempt is made to assess

the possibility of achieving the objective of building technological equipped

students and graduates within the current reality of government-private

partnership in education in Nigeria and other African Countries.

Keywords: Privatization, 6-3-3-4 System of Education, Free Education, Private-for-

Profit Schools, Funding, Technology, Industrialization, Development

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Introduction

‘There is no free lunch anywhere, not even in Freetown’ (anonymous).

The importance of education to human being and the society at large cannot be

overemphasized. Education is one of the current inalienable rights that should be accorded to

all human beings. A denial of the right to education is almost a denial of the right of existence

of an individual and the condemning of a society to the peril of underdevelopment. Due to the

importance of education to an individual and the society at large there are lots of International

Human rights Instruments that provide for education as a fundamental human right. These

include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights

(1981), and the Child Rights Act. However, despite these instruments initiated in order for the

provision of basic free and qualitative education to individual, it has become a common

experience that there are inequalities in educational access and achievement as well as high

levels of absolute deprivation of education in most parts of Africa. In the past three decades,

government funding of education has continue to decrease despite the fact there are new

reforms on education by the government of different countries across the continent. These

reforms are premised on the fact that in the 21st century, countries in Africa continuously

realized the fact that they have to model their educational system to meet up with the

challenges of globalization, occasioned by the need for industrialization and technological

development thrown at the doorsteps of the Countries in the continent. It was in recognition of

this that the Nigerian government attempted reforming its educational system by introducing

the 6-3-3-4 educational system in the early 1980s. This system intends building technical

capacities in students and increased the quality of education, which would in return assist the

country in its drive towards technological advancement and industrialization.

There is no gain arguing the fact that this system of education has failed. It is to be seen that

almost about three decades of the existence of the system of education it has not moved the

Nigerian state to the league of industrialized countries nor build a technological inclined

students in Nigeria. Rather, the standard of education has continued to fall and this has

affected the performance of students undergoing the system. The failure of the 6-3-3-2

educational system is not as result of the defects of the provisions of the system but poor

implementation which could be linked to poor funding of education by the Nigerian

government, which has continuously thrown the provision of education to private individuals,

religious organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). These bodies are unable

to implement the provisions of the 6-3-3-4 educational system. What this development

suggests is that in Nigeria and as it is in other parts of Africa ‘there is no free lunch’ when it

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comes to educational attainment. It is this regard that we assess the 6-3-3-4 education system

in Nigeria with a view of making pragmatic suggestions that will take it from its present

moribund level to the system that will build technical capacity of the students and help the

country advance towards technologically development within the context of global reality of

privatization in and of education. To achieve this, the paper is divided into five sections. It

begins with an historical overview of the British colonial educational system in Nigeria, and this

is followed by an assessment of free education and its effects on the quality of education in

Nigeria, an overview of the 6-3-3-4 educational system, privatization in and of education in

Nigeria and its effects on the 6-3-3-4 educational system, the way forward and lessons for other

African countries. The conclusion follows thereafter.

Historical Overview of British Colonial Educational System in Nigeria

Modern education was brought to Nigeria by the missionaries. It started with the establishment

of missionaries schools in the 1840s by the missionary bodies like the Methodist, Anglican

Church mission, the Roman Catholics and so on. These missionaries established these schools

with two primary objectives; the conversion of children to Christianity and the training of these

converted Christians to assist the missionaries in their work as catechists, lay readers and

teachers (Oyebamiji & Omordu, 2011). Thus, from inception education was not introduced in

Nigeria as well as other colonial states in Africa because the Colonial masters intended

preparing the students for their future growth and the growth of the colonial states. Kosemani

& Okorosaye (1995) put this argument in a clearer perspective when they posit that ‘the

curriculum of the early Christian schools in Nigeria included mostly the 4Rs- reading, writing

arithmetic and religion’. What these 4Rs suggest is a clear indication that the earlier curriculum

of the colonial education in Nigeria was mainly intended to train the students for usage by the

missionaries for their evangelism purpose, because this type of education did not in any way

include science and/or technology. Thus, it was not the intention of the colonial education to

prepare Nigeria and other Africa Countries for independence and post-independence self

reliance.

As Nigeria experience the defects of the missionaries education and as those that have gotten

this brand of education became more enlightened, criticism of the educational system became

intense. It was this criticism that made the colonial masters introduced the 8-6-2-3 educational

system, which heralded the establishment of the University College, Ibadan (now University of

Ibadan). Under this system of education, a student was expected to spend 8 years in primary

school, 6 years in secondary school, 2 years for higher school certificate and 3 years for

university education. The introduction of this system of education was not in any way

satisfactory and it faced further criticism, especially by the nationalists agitating for Nigerian

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independence. This agitation led to the introduction of a new system of education in 1954,

which was tagged 6-5-2-3 educational system. Under this system a student was expected to

spend 6 years in primary school, 5 years in secondary school, 2 years for higher school

certificate and 3 years in the university (Omolewa, 2007).

Despite the above mentioned efforts at changing the colonial’s systems of education by the

colonial masters in Nigeria, the colonial education did not serve good purposes because from

the onset it was not intended to move the country towards post-independence development.

Thus, criticisms of the colonial education in Nigeria centered on relevance, comprehensiveness,

and focus of the system. Nigerian leaders and educators were particularly worried that the

British system of education laid emphasis on academic subjects; educational opportunity was

restricted to few people and that the British Grammar school system of education was trans-

imposed on Nigeria without due consideration to the culture, environment and the aspirations

of Nigeria as a country (Adiele, 2006, quoting Nwangwu). What the colonial education created

in Nigeria was an education divorced from productive activities, which marked the removal of

manpower from agriculture, the more practical productive sector of the economy and made

educated Nigerians to embrace white collar jobs which did not help Nigeria achieve self

sustenance immediately after independence. These educated Nigerians immediately served the

purpose of comprador-bourgeoisie to the former colonial masters after colonialism. What our

position suggests here is that the British colonial education did not in any way create

technologically educated Nigerians which could have propelled the country into the comity of

industrialized countries immediately after independence. This culminated in the transformation

of the Nigerian state to a ‘rentier’ state or to be more simplistic rent-seeking state, in her early

years of independence.

Free Education and Its Impacts on the Quality of Education in Nigeria

Article 6 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated categorically that ‘Everyone

has a right to education. Education shall be free in the elementary and fundamentally stages.

Elementary education shall be compulsory’. Despite the fact that this declaration was made

during the era of British colonial rule in Nigeria the British colonial government did not extend

that right to Nigeria as a matter of policy (Nigerian Tribune, October 16, 2007). As noted earlier,

the delivery of formal education to Nigerians was haphazard and was left largely in the hands of

religious bodies. The British colonial government only contented itself with giving grants to

these schools and monitoring their performance. In effect a large percentage of the Nigerian

population did not have the advantage of formal education during this era. The introduction of

the Macpherson’s Constitution which divided Nigeria into three regions, North, West and East,

as well as the provision which placed education on the concurrent list, that is, the regional

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governments can also legislate on education, particularly at the primary and secondary levels

provided the opportunity for the launching of the Western Region’s primary education

programme (Ibid). The government of the Eastern region also adopted this policy. The purpose

of the policy was to guarantee equal education opportunities to every indigene of these regions

(though some critics have posited that this policy was politically motivated). At independence in

1960, the Nigerian government suspended the free education policy, despite the fact that the

1961 Addis Ababa conference for African nations called for the adoption of the Universal

Primary Education (UPE), which should be compulsory and free (Aina et al, 2010).

However, with the creation of 12 states in Nigeria in 1967 Lagos state was able to have full

fledged free education. Thereafter, the military administrations of the 1970s embarked on

more elaborate educational programmes aimed not only at making primary education free and

compulsory but also at creating new orientations for educational development (Chutta, 1986).

Similarly, the rights of all Nigerians to education have always been provided for in Nigerian

constitutions. Specifically, the 1999 constitution provides in section 18 that ‘that government

shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational

opportunities at all levels’. It was in fulfillment of this provision that a former president of

Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo introduced the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme. This

policy includes free and compulsory primary, junior secondary and nomadic education. It also

includes adult and non-formal programmes. However, the provision of free basic education by

the programme is also problematic in the sense that parents still have to pay school levies

imposed on pupils, buy textbooks and stationeries, buy school uniforms and in some cases

provide their own furniture.

At present what free basic education suggests in Nigeria is that students are not expected to

pay school fees in government owned primary and secondary schools. Unfortunately, while the

students were not expected to pay school fees they are exposed to half education. This is due

to the fact that most government owned primary and secondary schools in the country lack

adequate facilities that could enhance qualitative education. It is a common experience that

most of these schools hardly have library, laboratories, computers and other facilities necessary

for the attainment of basic qualitative education. In fact most buildings in these schools are in

dilapidated conditions. The overall effect of the Nigerian brand of free education is that the

standard of education is rapidly falling. Thus, majority of the Nigerian citizenry are exposed to

half education. This has therefore created the dilemma between quantitative and qualitative

education. We agree that there is an increase in the number of enrolment into government

owned schools. For instance in as at 1999 when there was restoration of electoral democracy in

Nigeria there were about 48,242 primary schools with 16,796,078 students in public schools

and 1,965,517 in private schools in the country. Then, there were 7,104 secondary schools with

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4,448,981 students (The Guardian, May 6 1999; Dike, 2001). Similarly, as provided in the

Federal Ministry of Education report 2001, enrolment in primary and secondary schools

increased by 6.2% and 3.9% representing 22.5 and 5.8 million respectively. This report reveals

further that while the government with its free education policy increased the number of pupils

that will have access to basic education, there is no adequate attention to address the quality of

such education. Poor performance of students in public examinations in recent years is an

indication of this. For example in an analysis of West African School Certificate Examinations

(WASSCE), the Assistant Registrar of the body responsible for the conduct of the examination

announced that the candidates who obtained credit passes in at least five subjects including

English Language and Mathematics within the period of 2005-2009 are as follows:

YEAR PERCENTAGE (%) PASS

2005 27.53

2006 15.56

2007 25.54

2008 13.76

2009 25.99

Source: Uduh, C (2010)

The same abysmal performances of students have also being the case in the

November/December, 2010 Senior Secondary Certificate Examination conducted by National

Examination Council (NECO). The statistics of the result for that year reveals that;

of the 256,840 registered candidates, 456,827 sat for the examination. No fewer

than 51,781 of 435,959 candidates (20.16%) passed English Language; while

87,508 of the 234,959 candidates (34.18%) who sat for Mathematics had credit

pass’ (Famade, 2012; quoting Okpala)

Addressing the dilemma of quantitative instead of qualitative education therefore requires

pragmatic approach in Nigeria. Qualitative education which involves adequate financial

provision with increased budgetary allocation, minimum academic standard in the form of

entry requirements and selection process, in-depth learning which brings imagination to play,

adequate learning conditions including facilities and infrastructures and, sustaining academic

staff morale and motivations (Zuofa, 2008). This approach shall be addressed in subsequent

sections of this paper.

The 6-3-3-4 Educational System in Nigeria: An Overview

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The search for the system of education best suited to Nigeria’s development, threw up the ‘6-3-

3-4 system of education’, which was midwife by a conference inaugurated by the then Federal

Commissioner for Education, Mr Wenike Briggs on September 8 1969, during the International

Literacy Day (Tribune, June 21, 2012; Awanbor, 2012). The 6-3-3-4 system of education which

was introduced to replace the 6-5-4 system was designed to inject functionality into the

Nigerian school system, by producing graduates who would be able to make use of their 3Hs-

Hands, Head and the Heart. Before it was officially introduced in 1982, there were inputs by

various sectors of Nigerian professional community. It marked a radical departure from the

British system of education which Nigeria inherited at independence in 1960. Basically it

adopted the American system of 6 years of primary education, 3 years of junior secondary

school, 3 years of senior secondary school, and 4 years of university education (Nwagwu, 1997).

The curriculum according to Gusau (2008) is a hybrid of prevocational and academic subjects.

The essence is to impart knowledge in Science, Arts, and Technology. The idea of the system is

to discover the potential of students at the junior Secondary School level and make those

endowed in technical abilities proceed to technical colleges or teachers colleges, as the case

may be, for training that would prepare them for further education in the polytechnics and

college of education respectively. For those who are more academically inclined they are to

proceed for the three years of senior secondary school and move ahead for another four years

in the university. Therefore, for this type of education the government is expected to provide

adequate workshops, laboratories, Fine Art studio, and other necessary facilities, as well as

quality teachers for effective learning and teaching in good classes. It could then be argued

that the 6-3-3-4 system of education is a functional system which could invigorate the nation

economically, morally, intellectually and politically. It is job oriented as it places premium on

manual activities, technical proficiency and respect for dignity of labour and economic

efficiency. It is aimed at providing the stakeholders with the basic tools for local craft. The

system emphasizes the acquisition of vocational skills used as foundation for both technology

and engineering at the secondary school level while tertiary stage is professionally oriented

with the aim of development and thus minimizing unemployment and producing skilled

manpower and technocrats in science and technology which are ingredients for the practice of

engineering (Awanbor, 2012).

The 6-3-3-4 system of education from inception was seen as a system in the right direction

which could move the nation towards technological development and industrialization.

However, because of the lack of commitment in the part of the government, the system have

failed to catapult Nigeria into the realm of educationally and technologically advanced

countries. Dearth of fund and infrastructure to run the 6-3-3-4 system had led to the jettisoning

of vital components of the system. For instance, the subject Introduction to Technology

popularly called ‘Introtech’ which was supposed to be compulsorily taught at the JSS level

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where students are supposed to familiarize with what technology is all about is no longer

taught at that level; at the Senior Secondary level, it is either that the Science students do not

have teachers or laboratories for practical sessions, and when there is laboratory, there is no

equipments. Most Science students now pass through secondary school without seeing a test

tube, which is one of the commonest of the tools for practical, except for few who attend some

highbrow private secondary schools. This constitutes one of the major reasons for the

dwindling in the performance of students and candidates in public examinations as shown in

the preceding section of this paper.

Due to the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system of education, the Nigerian President, Goodluck

Jonathan in October 2010 while speaking at a national stakeholders’ meeting on the education

sector, said that the 6-3-3-4 system of education had failed and that its proponents should

apologize to Nigerians. However, taking a second look at the system, the Minister of Education,

Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai’I proposed to the National Assembly, the need to revert to

the 6-3-3-4 system of education, but with a modification that would include Early Childhood

Education (ECE). The system she christened 1-6-3-3-4. The proposed system signifies that the

first one year of education would be for child from 1-5 years, the 6-year component would be

for primary education, 3 for Junior Secondary School, 3 for Senior Secondary School and 4 years

for tertiary education. Attempts to re-embrace the 6-3-3-4 system of education shows that the

system was not a bad idea, rather it was a failure due to the problem of bad implementation.

Thus, instead for the proponents of the system to apologize to Nigerian it is the Nigerian

government that should apologize to Nigerians for poor implementation of the system. As we

shall argue in the next section of the paper, the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system is highly linked to

poor funding of the system which was occasioned by decline in the government allocation to

the education sector, which resulted in private individuals, Non-Governmental Organizations

and religious organization filling the gap.

Privatization of Education in Nigeria and its Effects on the 6-3-3-4 Education

System

Government welcomes contributions of voluntary agencies, communities and private

individuals in the establishment and management of primary schools along side, those

provided by states and local Governments as long as they meet the minimum standards laid

down by the Federal Government’ (National Policy on Education, 1998)

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The above provision in the National Policy on Education shows clearly that the Nigerian central

government has pushed the management and funding of primary and secondary schools into

the hands of lower governments and private individuals. This position could be further

established when we examine the fact that the national government’s investment in education

in the last three decades has been abysmally low when and if compared with UNESCO’s

mandate to all governments of developing countries to invest as much as 26% of their annual

budgetary allocation to education sector. See the table below for the budgetary allocation to

education for some selected years in Nigeria:

Year Total Budget Nigerian

Government

Allocation to

Education

Allocation to

Education as % of

Total Budget

1994 N110.5 billion 8.66 billion 7.83

1995 N98.2 billion 12.73 billion 12.96

1996 N 124.2 billion 15.30 billion 12.32

1997 N 186 billion 21.8 billion 11.59

1998 N 260 billion 27.7 billion 10.27

1999 N 249 billion 27.7 billion 11.12

2000 N 277.5 billion 50.67 billion 8.36

2001 N 984.2 billion 62.6 billion 6.75

2002 N 844 billion 17.7 billion 6.8

2003 N 765.1 billion 13.9 billion 1.83

Source: Ikharena, 2007

From the above table it is evident that the Nigerian government allocation to education has

continued to decrease in respect of the percentage allocation to education from the total

budget. Going by the budgetary allocations during these years we can see increases in the

amount allocated to the education sector however, the percentage allocation in relation to the

Gross National Product (GNP) of the country have been very low. Instead of progressing

towards the 26% allocation, the Nigerian government has continue to reduce percentage

allocation to education until it attained a record 1.83% in 2003. In the literature this decline in

the percentage allocation has been linked to the economic depression of the 1980s which had

devastating effects on developing countries (Nwangwu, 1997; Famade, 1999; Bonat, 2003;

Igbuzor; 2006). As Bonat (2003) aptly points out, the economic crisis of the 1980s led to the

introduction of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) with the prescription from the

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank for reduction in public investment on

education. The policy prescription according to him clearly state that:

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The Bank did not suggest that public spending on education should be

boosted at the expense of servicing external debts. The World Bank

prescribed adjustment, revitalization and selective expansion policies in

order to address the education problems… The purpose of adjustment

was to ‘alleviate the burden of education and training on public

budgets’, because the Bank expected continuing structural adjustment to

further erode public spending on education, it recommended adjustment

to diversify sources of educational finance ‘through increased cost

sharing in public education’, and the ‘encouragement of

nongovernmental supplies of educational services’. The Bank

recommended ‘increased user charges’ in public education, especially for

tertiary education. The Bank also recommended ‘containment of unit

costs’ especially in utilization of teachers’ (low pay policy for teachers),

lowering construction standards for education infrastructure, and

benefitting from ‘the tendency of students to repeat grades or drop out

of school.

Through the embracement of these prescriptions by the Nigerian government what followed

were decrease in public spending in education (as showed in the above table), increased

participation of the private sector, and commercialization of education, leading to decline in the

quality of education. Basically, the shifting of funding responsibilities from the centre to the

periphery and private concerns have witnessed the expansion of private-for-profit schools in

Nigeria, which are now attended by children of wealthy parents. Under these conditions,

private-for-profit schools exist both at a very expensive type for the rich communities and an

affordable low-cost alternative for poor households (Geo-Jaja, 2004). The predictable

consequence of this development is the familiar problem of equity and increasing

differentiation in the quality of education which children of the rich and the poor are exposed

to. The question that arises at this point is that; how does the privatization of education in

Nigeria impacted negatively on the realization of the objectives of the 6-3-3-4 education

system? We shall turn to the next paragraph for answers to this.

Our first answer here is that the implementation of the 6-3-3-4 system of education requires

intensive capital, which was not made available by the government. Going by this, the

reduction in government spending on education while still operating the 6-3-3-4 education

system remains an aberration. As we have severally pointed out, in order to achieve the

curriculum of the system the government requires equipping the secondary schools with

Introductory technology workshops and machines, Fine Art laboratories, Science laboratories

and equipments, as well as infrastructural development in these schools. With the reduction in

government spending on education it became practically impossible for the 6-3-3-4 system to

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achieve the purposes for which it was introduced. What the government is doing in this respect

is just like a ‘father sending his kid to school without buying books and other things the child

requires for schooling and yet expected the kid to perform well in his examination’. We hold

strongly that government failure in adequately funding the 6-3-3-4 system of education has

greatly affected the success of the system. More so, the private sector which is also saddled

with the responsibility of providing primary and secondary education lacks the ability and the

motivation to subsidize the cost of education. Since owner of private primary and secondary

schools are in the educational sector to make profit, they try to reduce cost in order to

maximize profit. The resultant effect of this is the ‘mushrooming of private schools’. As Adelabu

and Rose (2004) observe, ‘in Nigeria unapproved (private) schools are providing schooling

opportunities to a significant number of children, particularly in urban and sub-urban areas’.

And according to them, these private unapproved schools are a low quality substitute for public

education. In fact, in most of these schools the teachers there are those that are not in any way

qualified to teach the students. In order to maximize profit these private schools employ

Secondary Schools’ certificate holders to teach in primary schools and undergraduates to teach

at the secondary school level. Majority of these teachers are paid salaries of amount ranging

from #10,000- #20,000, per month (that is, between less than $100 to about $120). A research

undertaken by James Tooley and Pauline Dixon between April 2003 and December 2005 on

private schools in Nigeria reveals that the average salaries in government schools are more

than three and half times higher than in the unregistered, and more than three times those in

the registered private schools (Tooley & Dixon, 2007). Some of the upper class category of the

private-for-profit schools who are able to employ graduates give little consideration to

professionalism. In view of this, teachers in the neglected public schools are even better than

those in most private schools. Under this situation it is an understatement to say that the

private-for profit schools can never achieve a capital intensive 6-3-3-4 system of education.

More so, general experience shows that private schools undermine government schooling

system, because they are found to mostly operate against government’s vision in the

development of a particular educational policy. Thus, the combination of government failure

and those of the private concerns which provide education in Nigeria have contributed to the

failure of the system, and not the proponents of the system as suggested by President

Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria.

The Way Forward and Lessons for other African Countries

There have been lots of debates on the quality of education in Nigeria. There is however a

consensus of opinion that the quality of education is falling, not only in Nigeria but in most

African countries. The quality of students produced in Africa is low when compared with those

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of other continents and that recent further decline in supplies of the key inputs at the pre-

tertiary levels, such as infrastructures, equipments, books and other learning materials has had

deleterious consequences on different system of education existing across Africa. There is a

reason to believe that there is a potential for substantial improvement in the achievements of

various education systems in Africa, especially in the 6-3-3-4 system of education operated in

Nigeria. The 6-3-3-4 system of education is one of the best systems that have the potential of

increasing the quality of students, which will in return move an entire nation into technological

advancement and industrialization. America and Japan adopted the system of education and it

has impacted greatly on the quality of education and technological advancement in these two

countries. There is potential for the improvement of the achievements of the 6-3-3-4

educational system if there is a reasonable increase in investment in education in Nigeria, and if

the system is given a slight modification. Increase investment in education which will bring

about the availability of adequate school buildings, classrooms, chairs, desks, laboratories and

other facilities necessary for the achievement of the objectives of the 6-3-3-4 system of

education. A slight adjustment in the system, which will make it less expensive, and not the 1-6-

3-3-4 presently proposed by the Nigerian government, which in our view will make funding of

education more challenging.

There is the need to raise the fact that in order to achieve the objectives of the 6-3-3-4

educational system in Nigeria and increase the quality of students produced, increased overall

allocation to education sector is compulsory. The present situation where the Nigerian

government allocates less than 5% of its Gross National Product (GNP) is unaccepted. If the

Nigerian government is desirous of achieving development, there is the need to look for ways

of increasing percentage budgetary allocation for the education sector. In fact, this is where our

analogy of ‘no free lunch in anywhere, not even in Freetown’ becomes invaluable. The analogy

becomes relevant within the logical acceptance of our understanding of elementary economics

principle of alternative foregone. According to this principle, the amount a person pays for a

product or service is not the cost of that product but the alternative products or services that

one has to forego in order to get that particular product. So, whatever you have must have cost

you something. It is with this simple economics principle that we would be suggesting that the

Nigerian government should look at the sectors in the economy where budgetary allocations

could be cut down in order to increase budgetary allocation to education. Another way through

which government can increase allocation to education is by increasing the percentage

payment of companies into the pool of the Education Trust Fund (ETF). The Education Tax Fund

(ETF) was established as an intervention agency under the Education Tax Act No. 7 of 1993 and

amended by Education Tax (amendment) Act No. 40 of 1998; with project management to

improve the quality of Education in Nigeria. To enable the ETF achieve these objectives, the Act

imposes a 2 percent (2%) Education Tax on the assessable profits of all registered companies in

Nigeria. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is empowered by the Act to assess and

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collect the Education Tax (ETF Resourcedat, 2011). Since the introduction of ETF much has not

be achieved in the development of education in Nigeria through the intervention of the fund.

Our suggestion is that the percentage payment on assessable profits of registered companies in

Nigeria should be slightly increased from its present 2% according to current economic realities.

More so, companies producing products consumed by those in the upper class in the Nigeria

society should pay a higher percentage than those producing essential goods mostly for the

lower class citizens. We shall however point out with emphasis that machinery should be put in

place to ensure proper management of the ETF proceeds. More so, in order to increase funding

of the 6-3-3-4 system of education, there is the need for international development partners’

assistance to Nigeria. It has been documented that in order to make adequate progress towards

achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Nigeria requires additional external

financing averaging about US $6.4 billion annually between 2005 and 2008 (Country

Partnership Strategy, 2005). Even if the resources in Nigeria are used effectively there will still

be challenges of meeting the MDGs. At present Nigeria is seriously under-aided. Nigeria

despite being the most populous country in Africa receives only US $2 per capita in ODA

compared to the average for Africa of US $28 per capita. Therefore, in order to achieve

qualitative education in Nigeria international development partners need to increase their aids

to the country.

Another way through which the 6-3-3-4 educational system could be well implemented in order

to achieve its objective is by shifting resources from other levels within the education sector. In

the first two decades of Nigeria’s independence the primary and secondary schools were

allocated more funds than those for tertiary schools. According to Hinchliffe (2002), in 1962 the

distribution of funds among the levels of education in Nigeria was 50% for primary education,

31% for secondary and 19% for tertiary education. In contrast, recent estimates show a very

different priority of 36%, 29% and 35% respectively. The share for primary and secondary

schools has fallen appreciably, while that for tertiary education has increased. In order to

achieve proper implementation of the 6-3-3-4 system of education we suggest that the share

for the secondary level should be increased. We shall justify this suggestion. In Nigeria today

the caliber of graduates the university system is producing are either ‘half baked’ or ‘unbaked’.

Graduates that are mostly unemployable and those that are employable spend years looking

for jobs, which are hardly available. Nigeria is producing these categories of graduates not

remotely due to poor university system but rather due to faulty backgrounds of students

admitted by Nigerian tertiary institutions. As it is a known fact that the foundation of the

building matters most to the survival of a building, in the same way, the type of graduates that

a university will produce depends on the type of students that secondary schools passed out.

Another argument in support of increase allocation to the secondary schools is the argument of

social and private benefits. It is assumed that for a parent spending on the education of his

children a secondary school certificate holder has lesser private benefits to the parent than the

15

benefit that the parent will get in spending money sponsoring his child for tertiary education.

Thus, a parent is ready to spend as much as three times the money spent on per-tertiary

education on university education. In this regard, when government allocation to tertiary

education is decreased in favour of efficient secondary education, parents could be able to bear

increase cost of tertiary education because of the immediate private benefits of such

investment. In order to assist indigent students in view of the fact that the cost of tertiary

education might increase as result of decrease allocation, scholarships and bursaries should be

made available to such students by state and local governments and banks should also try to

give out education soft loans, especially to those that have prospect of repayment. Allocation

for secondary school should be increased because of the capital intensive nature of that level of

education if the goals of the 6-3-3-4 education system must be achieved.

In order to achieve standard education in Nigeria we would like to further suggest a more

radical approach which will slightly affect the nomenclature of the 6-3-3-4 system without

necessarily affecting the curriculum of the system. By doing this we shall be subscribing to the

suggestions of Lewin and Caillods (2001) on the reduction of unit costs of education at

secondary school level and or produce more secondary school graduates with existing

resources. According to them there are several ways of doing this. We shall however assess

some of these recommendations that are relevant to the Nigerian, as well most African

countries’ situation. The first of such is the reduction in the length of secondary schooling.

There is no evidence or research that suggests that those that spend more years in school are

better off. What available evidences suggest however is that, the longer the primary education

cycle and the shorter secondary school the better. This follows from the fact that costs of

primary education are almost everywhere lower than those of secondary education. Primary

school teachers are paid less than secondary school teachers. It is also true that non-salary

costs are lower, since the equipment and the facilities required in primary schools are relatively

simple. When these factors are taken into consideration we would suggest that instead of

increasing the schooling years through the introduction of the 1-6-3-3-4 that the Nigerian

government is proposing, the number of years spent in secondary school should be reduced to

five years. Thus, we suggest the retention of six years for Primary education, three years for

Junior Secondary School and two years for Senior Secondary School. The outcome of this

recommendation is a new system that will be tagged 6-3-2-4 system of education. Aside the

slight change in nomenclature, the entire curriculum of the 6-3-3-4 system should be

maintained. The maintenance of the curriculum to include the revival of ‘dead’ technical

schools as provided for by the system of education. Another relevant suggestion is increasing

the size of secondary schools (Ibid). School size is an important determinant of cost per student.

Small secondary schools are likely to suffer diseconomies of scale (leading to a low

pupil/teacher ratio, and high administration costs) and are often associated with lower

performance on achievement tests. However, they may be necessary as result of population

16

distribution, and ethno-religious or other segmentation, but it is a simple economics logic that

secondary schools which enrolment is below 1,000 students are associated with rising costs.

The Nigerian government should therefore cut cost of running secondary schools by merging

schools with less than 1,000 students with a closer and larger secondary school. In doing this,

the effect that the such merging of schools and increasing the distance from home to school

may have on rural pupils’ enrolment and on girls’ enrolment in particular, has to be assessed

and balanced with the possible savings that can be made on teachers and building.

Conclusion

The curriculum of the 6-3-3-4 system of education is about the best for Nigeria and other

African Countries thinking of technological development and Industrialization. The system if

properly implemented will build into individual graduate technical capacity which will assist the

society at large. The major challenge facing the achievement of this system of education in

Nigeria is the failure of the government to properly fund the system. Instead of adequate

funding of the system the government has so far shifted more of the responsibilities of funding

education viz-a-viz the funding of the system to private concerns which has more compounded

the problems of the implementation of the 6-3-3-4 educational system. Apart from the slight

adjustment of reducing the present number of years spent for pre-tertiary education from 12

years to 11 years, we suggest that the system of education remains the best which should be

properly implemented by the Nigerian government. Proper implementation of the system in

the way of increased funding of the educational sector. The funding that will increase the

allocation for secondary schooling, due to the fact that, that level of education requires more

funding in respect of the capital intensive nature of the implementation of the curriculum of

the 6-3-3-4 system of education. We have suggested several options through which the

government can increase funding to the educational sector under its present economic

challenges. Among other things we suggest sectoral prioritization of government spending

which would involve reduced spending on some sectors in favour of the educational sector,

increased means of generating more funds into the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and increased

assistance from international developmental donors.

Our believe is that if the educational sector is well funded to increase the quality of education

at the primary and secondary levels, the quality of education will increase in public schools and

the quest for attending private schools will become less attractive. In view of this, the

responsibility of providing basic education will majorly become that of the government and

education will then take its proper place in the development of the country. Suggestions in this

work are therefore useful for other countries in Africa facing decline in their system of

17

education occasioned by decline funding of the sector and who at the same time desirous of

technological advancement and industrialization.

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