Below is a rich comment from the facebook discussion on Moyo Okediji's provocative post:
Emeriewen Kings No real academic is scared of evaluation. But infrastructure for academic development must be in place. For instance, more than 95% of lecturers pay directly from their pockets to access internet. They will also buy petrol from their pockets to power their generators at home and in their offices. In universities like uniben (ekenwan campus), we have repeatedly witnessed power outage for up to four working days. How does one work in his office or teach in this kind of condition? or is it the use of chalk board in this century? The decay in the so called ivory towers is enormous. A whole lot must be done by government before other standardisation measures. The appointment of V.Cs and governing councils must be non-political. I almost forgot! Do you have an idea on how academics are employed lately? No adverts for such positions. Every other day, a new lecturer is introduced at departmental board meetings. Their qualifications are not important. They are essentially V.C's relations, friends as well as those from the V.C' s ethnic stock. What we hear lately in universities is a term like "its our turn". You can decipher the implication of this. God help our education.
My Take:
This is the kind of substantive discussion I want to have. I empathize with the point about societal infrastructural deficits and other existential vagaries impinging on the ability of an academic to operate at his optical pedagogical and research best. But I also sense in this post the familiar alibi invoked to rationalize bad teaching, absentee pedagogy, non-commitment to academic obligations, etc. I can see how the outlined problems would disrupt the rhythm of even the most organized and committed lecturer and reduce his effectiveness. But I cannot see how these infrastructural issues justify not showing up at all for your assigned class, not attending to your students' needs, losing scripts, not mentoring students, not making yourself available to your students, and ethnical violations too lurid to mention in detail. At least show up and do your best and we can excuse you from the rot and train our critique on the obvious government failures.
I'm glad that the post touches on what I've been positing as a foundational problem, a problem that ASUU in its narrow focus on what someone calls the "strike and settle" model has neglected: the manner in which people enter the university system as lecturers. That's where the problem of poor teaching, non-commitment, and lack of passion for academic business starts. Considering the fact that the Nigerian university teaching profession is fast garnering a reputation as a refuge for mediocre folks with no preparation, passion, and temperament for rigorous academic work, resulting in both a perception problem and a real problem of poor graduates, why will ASUU not fight for the institution of new hiring guidelines that scrutinize everyone on the way in and make sure that only people cut out for the academy enter it? And why won't ASUU agree to a basic student teaching evaluation system that holds its members accountable to the students they claim to love so much? If ASUU believes it has so much leverage with the government, it should deploy this leverage in a more popular direction that would demonstrate its commitment to solving the increasingly obvious problem of instruction and accountability in Nigerian universities. In doing so, ASUU would also be solving its perceptional liabilities.
On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 9:57 AM, <winersbygrace@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Why is that some of our colleagues in Diaspora still refuse to understand that ASUU is facing even worse circumstances and problems in the Nigerian education sector which made them leave Nigeria for greener pastures.I think it about time, ASUU begin to engage some of these colleagues like the FGN too that signed the 2009 MOU and is denying, because they are part of the problem and refuse to understand the issues in dispute.Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.From: Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com>Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 06:24:52 -0700 (PDT)To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; Ederi@yahoogroups.com<Ederi@yahoogroups.com>; krazitivity@yahoogroups.com<krazitivity@yahoogroups.com>ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSubject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moyo Okediji on what the Federal Government should do with the ASUU wahala"As Minister of Education in Nigeria, I would take the following ten DECISIVE actions immediately:1. Dismiss all the lecturers. Of course they are free to seek re-dress through the courts. The universities have attorneys to answer lawsuits.
2. Give lecturers an opportunity to re-apply within seven days.3. Those who do not re-apply should leave university housing, and vacate their offices. Invite the police to maintain order and enforce the vacation of university properties. Those arrested for illegal actions will be legally arrested and duly prosecuted.
4. Re-appoint lecturers as Assistant Professors (Lecturers I and II), Associate Professors (Senior Lecturers and Readers), and Full Professors (current Professors).... 5. Re-appointment is not automatic. Only lecturers who have been productive in the last three years would be re-appointed. Productivity to be be determined in terms of publications, exhibitions, inventions, and research findings.6. Negotiate salaries individually with the professors, based on demonstrated productivity. Every professor receives a salary package that is unique to his/her qualifications, experience and productivity. This is the way remunerations are apportioned in the United States, which is mostly why many professors work hard.7. Request evaluations of professors by students every semesters. This is done every semester in the US, and ensures that many professors take teaching serious).
8. Recruit international university accreditors and consultants to equip libraries, classrooms, and laboratories.
9. Recruit international accreditors and consultants to appoint Vice-Chancellor, Librarians, and Registrars, and Accountants.
10. Retain international accreditors and consultants to annually evaluate the state of each university, and recommend continued accreditation.
The university system would improve drastically, and universities would become a true place of learning, research, and excellence."- Moyo OkedijiInteresting... Over a hundred comments and counting on Facebook. Very informative and illuminating comments on Facebook. Please click and read...- IkhideStalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/Follow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide--
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