Quality Education in Delta State: Issues Arising

By

Emordi Promise Jude

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1809-7958

Education remains the only viable key that is capable of unlocking the doors of civilization. The education sector is a critical sector and as such a catalyst for national growth and development. Thus, human capital investment remains the best rewarding civilization mission in the history of mankind on earth. History has it that most of the countries of the world that have defeated poverty, unemployment, and other developmental crisis, have to their credit a functional, free quality education in place and as such, have attained at least 90-98% literacy rate. For example, Cuba, Estonia, Singapore and other emerging economies are among these groups of countries with high literacy rate. Unfortunately, Nigeria literacy rate is not up to 80%. It is however, in between 65 to 68%.

Quality education is that education that produces a complete person who happens to be a graduate of a particular educational institution and represents either the primary, secondary or tertiary strata. He or she must have passed through the educational processes of teaching and learning and as such, having found worthy in character and in learning through the instrumentalities of continuous assessment, examination and is hereby certified and worthy to defend such certification anytime and at anywhere.

There have been outcry by scholars, parents and teachers over the geometrical rate at which education standard and quality of the education learners receives are falling unabated. The quality of education has fallen beyond redemption. Often times, at the school level, many lecturers and teachers are reported to operate with forged certificates. While at the political level, many political gladiators got their political careers terminated due to certificate forgery. Evident abounds of students that purportedly graduated with forged certificates. This whole issue clearly shows the dysfunctional state of our educational system. At the national level, some of the programmes presented at the television have no moral, social, economic and educational oriented impacts on learners. For example, the Big Brother Naija programme has kept many school age learners busy without having a contributing force in fulfilling their academic yearnings.

Likewise, most secondary school students are unable to write their names correctly, or write a succinct formal and informal letter that is unambiguous and devoid of some grammatical errors. In the other hand, some teachers find it difficult communicating effectively in a written form. Arguably, some students be it the secondary school or tertiary level lacks the boldness and confidence to make public presentations without reading through the paper.

In order to resolve some of these quagmires, education reform becomes imperative. Education reforms are those reforms that are carried out by the government through its arms of government, ministries, agencies and parastatals with regards to strengthening the education sector, so as to make it more dynamic, efficient and effective in discharging her role of human capital development for national development as well as providing the needed undiluted quality and standard education that will be able to withstand global academic, employment and self reliant competitiveness

The government of Delta State have actually tried through successful administrations to improve the qualities of education in the State. Since 2007, Delta State has maintained her free quality basic education policy. This policy however, was further spread to cover the post-primary education level, and also, covers the government paying for external examinations like WAEC. Although, such gesture, was jettisoned in 2016. Other reforms include; the introduction of education marshals and electronic attendance. Both reforms are aimed at curbing teachers and student’s truancy and absenteeism which constitutes a cog towards the realization of quality education in public schools in the state.

Besides the incessant rate of insecurity in Delta State which often manifests in form of kidnapping, oil bunkering, land grabbing’s among neighbouring communities, restive youths and their militia groups; the Delta State school system is not exonerated from the two hydra monster phenomenon known as student’s cultism and truancy which have resulted in examination malpractices, school drop-outs and as such increases the chances of growing illiteracy. Education Marshals happens to be part of the remedy in order to curtail students cultism, truancy and absenteeism.

In order to resolve some of the above contradictions in the school system, the Delta State government under the leadership of Governor Emmanuel Uduagha launched the Education Marshal in September 16, 2013, with the aim of checkmating truancy and indiscipline among primary and secondary school students in Delta State. Also, the programme aimed at solidifying the efforts of the state government as regards achieving free quality education for all school age children in Delta State.

The term education marshal depicts an education enforcement officer empowered by the government to implement education related policies in order to make the educational processes more meaningful, efficient and effective. The vision statements of the education marshal are; to improve the educational system by reducing and gradually eradicating truancy, while breeding a healthy educational system.

The education marshals consist of 100 men and women graduate youths of various fields of knowledge, employed by the government as education enforcement officers, empowered by the government. While there are 25 Special education marshals in form of elder statesmen and traditional rulers. Both are to work in synergy with other relevant government agencies and departments as well as other education stakeholders in the State.

Objectives of the Education Marshals

Getting majority of the students to attend schools, this will further translate to a drastic result improvement and also, breeds a healthy competition as league tables will be easily established.

Specific Services of the Education Marshals

Facilitate in the reduction of truancy, hawking and bunking

Taking tracks of pupils and students absenteeism

Eradicate nonchalance by teachers/parents and guardians

Jobs creation while also increasing the value and appreciation for education

An agent for the realization of:

National Education Policy

Child Right Act (CRA)

Universal Basic Education (Education)

However, it should be noted that Delta State remains the first to champion the introduction of Education Marshals in Nigeria. This is why States like Kaduna and Osun are already in the Education Marshal bandwagon.

The Edu-Marshal was able to replace street culture with reading culture among primary and secondary school learners in Delta State. When the programme was on motion, many teachers were unable to send students errands, and in the same vein, students were unable to sneak out of school for any personal adventure or for other business related deals that they participate in order to help their parents by selling at shops, hawking in the streets during school hours. Most of the students found outside the school premises or within the streets during school hours are arrested, detained and interrogated and if care is not taken, such a student must provide his or parent for further probe. Punishments and fines are unleashed depending on the magnitude of the offence and reasons that was accounted for such offence.

Nevertheless, the Edu-Marshals were able to clear the streets of Delta State from loitering by school age learners and this effort resulted in the increase in student’s enrolment cum attendance and punctuality etc. There was cut down in social vices among students, like cultism among secondary school students in Delta State.

In the aspect of increase in school enrolment, the table below portrays the fact.

Table 1 below shows Enrolment rate for basic and secondary schools in Delta State between 2007 and 2015 academic session

Year

Primary school

Enrolment

Junior Secondary

School Enrolment

Senior Secondary

School enrolment

Grand Total

2007/2008

373,121

121,429

69,559

564.109

2008/2009

400,714

128,040

79,873

608,627

2009/2010

317,661

133,286

93,374

436,881

2010/2011

361,378

133,286

93,374

588,038

2011/2012

330,487

131,930

100,460

563,878

2012/2013

312,967

126,771

94,278

534,016

2013/2015

471,883

211,091

121,009

803,983

Source: Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education Report, 2015.

From the table above, it is obvious that between 2013 and 2015, total enrolment stood at 803,983 which represent the highest between 2007 and 2012. This can be attributed to the introduction of Edu-Marshals between 2013 and 2015, with the aim of taming student’s truancy and replacing street culture with learning and teaching culture so as to boost and maintain student’s enrolments.

In line with the above achievement, The United Nations in her 2014 report on Delta State development performance, asserted that Delta State has 97% net school enrolment rate, 99% primary school completion rate and 97% literacy rate through; the free education policy and the Edu-Marshal initiative. The programme was recommended for incorporation in the Nigeria federation by UN.

The programme underperformed in the aspect of personnel size. The 100 personnel will not be able to cover all the schools within the 25 Local Government Areas in Delta State. Besides, most of the Edu-Marshal recruits may not be too familiar with some rural terrains in the State. This is because; evidence abounds of the high rate of educational inequalities and marginalization among primary and secondary school students in the rural and oil host communities in Delta State.

Again, the education marshals do not have power to control other factors that may hinder the realization of quality education in Delta State. For example, teacher’s truancy , principal’s administration pattern, availability of educational facilities and how secure they are coupled with students admission and promotion criteria are outside the bound of the Education Marshals.

Thus, the quest to achieve quality education through the Edu-Marshal is a lopsided adventure. The reasons lie in the fact that the teacher factor is one of the key drivers of quality education. If there are shortage of qualified teaching staff in schools or the few one are passing a half baked knowledge to the students, wrong qualification or job placement outside their areas o specialization coupled with poor working conditions of teachers, all these factors can mar the realization of quality education. Also, most schools in Delta State have no quality library, laboratories and other essential educational facilities in order to instil the reading culture in school children.

Furthermore, most school administrators are found of jeopardizing laid down standards for student’s admission, class placement and promotion in exchange for some obnoxious fees. A case in Point is Ngwu Mixed Secondary School and other public secondary schools in Ogwashi-Uku where the school Principals are busy charging and admitting some notorious student drop-outs due to cultism related cases. As such, the school is over populated and students being aware that money can get them through the system often end up exhibiting nonchalant attitude towards studies.

Conversely, the Edu-Marshal is however, not blemish since the Okowa`s administration that came into power in 2015 jettisoned it, base on some lacunas discovered after three months investigations were conducted. It was revealed that the programme lacked the appropriate legal backing to operate, likewise, the recruitment and promotion processes coupled with the salary grade level and its structures were all faulty and as such the Okowa’s administration has to settle about 143 Edu-Marshals whose name were found in the payroll system and jettisoned the programme for good.

Government efforts towards improving school infrastructures in Delta State

Between 2007 and 2019, the government of Delta State have actually disbursed some school facilities and infrastructures as well as manpower in order to enhance the day to day effective and efficient teaching and learning in public schools in Delta State. The tables below, attests to such government efforts.

Table 1: Government Provisions to Schools in Delta State, 2009-2012

Government Provisions/Items provided

NO.

Classrooms Blocks Constructed/Renovated

487

Classrooms Blocks Constructed/Renovated

657

Classrooms Blocks Awarded for Construction

137

Rehabilitated Classroom Blocks Awarded

67

Constructed Primary and Secondary Schools

55

Infant Furniture Constructed

540

Teachers Table Constructed and Supplied

3,110

Teachers Chairs Constructed and Supplied

36,082

Students Furniture Constructed and Supplied

8.302

Teachers Tables and Chairs Constructed

1,066

Procured Textbooks on Math’s, English, and Social Studies

3,123,328

Teachers Recruited

5,000

Non Teaching Staff Recruited

2,000

Source: The Pointer Newspaper (2013)

Table 2: Government Provisions to Schools in Delta State, 2015-2019

Government Provision/ Items provided

No.

Classrooms Constructed

1,225

Classrooms Renovated

2,225

Students Furniture Supplied

115,102

Teachers Furniture

18,131

Administrative Blocks Constructed

39

Academic Blocks Renovated

27

Science Laboratory Renovated

64

Constructed Block Wall Fence

29

Renovated Block-Wall Fence

18

Construct/Renovated and Supplied Pupils Desk

2,337 and 35,294

Teachers Furniture Supplied

7,354

Constructed and Renovated Perimeter Fences and Gatehouses

93

Constructed Solar Powered Boreholes

79

Modern Toilet Facilities Built

271

Teachers Recruited

1,000

Source: Vanguard Newspaper (2020).

The information derived from the table above shows how the government has tried in providing all the necessary facilities that will enhance and sustain quality education in public schools in Delta State. However, provisions are not made for free writing materials and textbooks for the learners’ that constitutes the brain behind education and all activities that occur in the school system. Besides, it took Delta State more than six years to recruit a thousand teachers who specialized mostly in the science subjects. Thus, history, civic education, geography, government and other art and vocational subjects were neglected and are still in demands in public secondary schools in the State. Besides, some of the projects executed in form of buildings, renovations and furniture supplies are substandard and does not have more than a 365 days durability spam. Furthermore, Delta State is yet to upgrade all secondary schools in the State into global standard, this is because most of the secondary schools lack power supply, computers and other electronic learning facilities.

It should be noted that the government of the Delta State through the ministry of Basic Education, noted that teachers or school administrators who are caught in the act of illegal levies collections will be made to face decisive actions which often results in demotion, compulsory retirement and a refund of such illegal levies back to the contributors. The case of 7 years old Miss Adegor Success a primary 3 pupil of Okotie-Eboh Primary school in Sapele was cited, the said pupil was sent out of school for non-payment of school fee by the school administrator who was later suspended upon investigation that found such act as illegal.

On the other hand, the purported video was able to capture the attention of the government as regards the dysfunctional state of the Okotie-Eboh Primary school. Thus, as at 2018, the government have mapped out some feasibility studies in order to renovate or build more school blocks in a school that has being in existence for the past six decades under government continuous neglect. This clearly shows the lopsided and the politicized nature of government interventions as regards human capital and educational development in Delta State.

According to the Daily Trust report, a parent by the name Mr. Akure Ovie noted that the practice of illegal school fees as demanded by some public schools administrators persists because parents and guardians failed to resist and report such illegal demands to the appropriate school authorities. Mr Ovie stated that he challenged a Head Teacher who demanded for exam fee from his ward. The said Head Teacher denied such when asked. He further noted that many public school administrators imposed illegal fees in form of exam fees, enrolment fees and scratch card fee for online result check. Continuing, how can education be free in Delta State when students pay for sports and school badges?

Parents in Delta State have protested against the payment for common entrance examination for their would-be secondary school student’s wards. Parents according to the report in the Daily Trust (2019) observed that pupils in various public primary schools were compelled to pay registration fees ranging from N7000, N10000, and N12000 in order to register for the Common Entrance Examination, while external pupils from private primary schools were to pay N17000 for the said Examination. The report further captured a complaint by a parent in Asaba the State Capital of Delta State, who reiterated that after paying N10000, she was asked to pay another N500 as lesson fee, N400 for Report card and N100 for consumables.

The Commissionerfor Basic and Secondary schools, Mister Ebie stated that a circular letter on fees and levies to be collected from all basic and secondary schools in the State was issued on September 2018. The approved levies include; N100 and N750 for sportswear per term. Besides this, any other levy imposed on students is illegal.

The table below shows the approved list of levies from pupils and secondary school students in Delta State

Table 3: List of Approved Fees in Public Schools in Delta State

Fee category

Students Category

Amount in Naira

Customized Online Result (Per -Term)

All Secondary School

N250

School Badge (Every Three Years)

Primary 1-6

N50

Report Cards (Every Six Years)

Primary 1-6 Including Transferred Pupils

N250

Consumables (Per Term)

Primary 1-6

N100

School Badge (Per- Session)

All Students in Secondary School

N150

Students Identity Cards (Every Three Years)

All Students in Secondary Schools

N200

Students Consumables (Per –Term)

All Secondary School Students

N200

Sports/NSSF ( Per -Term )

SSI To SSII

N300

Student File (Every Three Years

JSSI and SSI

N150

Sports Wear

All Students

N750

Source: Emordi (2020).

Information derived from the table shows that the free education policy of the Delta State government is nothing but a lip-service. This is because the parents of the pupils and students in public schools, still buys school uniforms, textbooks, and other levies imposed in the registration processes coupled with these approved levies. Thus, on the average, parents and guardians are expected to spend between N20, 000 and N50, 000 annually in order to train their wards for a 12 years mandated primary and secondary education.

From a critical point of view, free education should include textbooks, school launch and health insurance cover for learners and teacher’s coupled with access to unlimited and updated school facilities. Unfortunately, the free education policy in Delta State did not cover these critical aspects. Most learners goes to school on empty stomach, some drop out due to illness, lack of writing materials and textbooks for studies. Most schools lacks basic power supply, functional science laboratories, libraries and other educational technology paraphernalia’s needed for effective teaching and learning between teachers and the learners.

Some observations from newspaper reports, coupled with my own observations as an N-Power volunteer who served in a public secondary school in Delta State, the table below shows some identifiable illegal levies collected in public schools in Delta State.

Table 4: Identified Illegal Fees in Public Schools in Delta State

Fees Names

Amount

Examination

N500-N2000

Textbooks

N1000-N3000

Common Entrance

N7000-15000

Lesson

N500-N1000

Inter-House Sports

N100-N3000

PTA

N1000

NSSF

N1050-N2500

Electricity

N50-100

Security

N100-N200

Source: Authors Compilation

The question remains, if the government was doing her best in terms of adequate education financing that is able to catch up with the UNESCO 26% benchmark in terms of capital and recurrent education expenditures; will these issues of illegal levies be this noticeable? Dr Ebie answered this question by noting that government provides between N20, 000 – N100, 000 as subventions to public schools in Delta State. This claim was refuted by Mr Titus Okotie-Eboh the then Chairman, NUT (Nigeria Union of Teacher) Delta State wing, who argued that government provisions as regards education funding was too infinitesimal for school heads to utilize on the day to day running of the schools they are mandated to administer. Besides, the subventions does not get to school heads on time, since the release of subventions for schools in Delta State is often characterized by irregularities as regards disbursement.

The government through Dr Ebie claimed that N6 billion haven been spent as a counterpart fund to cover between 2013 and 2017 so as to be able to access N13 billion UBEC funds needed for the development and further expansion of free primary and secondary education in Delta State. But, the Nation findings through Ikuejawa, shows that 90% of school contracts in form of buildings, renovations up to students and teachers furniture supplies are substandard in terms of quality and this is why before a year runs out, such renovated or new built school buildings are in a dysfunctional state. He further observed that the same fate awaits all supplied students and teachers furniture’s, as such, many schools lacks furniture’s since the ones supplied are already in a bad shape and liters around the schools as a mare plank.

It should be noted, that the purported claim of free examinations for secondary school students are no longer obtainable in Delta State. The government in 2016, decided to jettison WAEC and NABTEB payments on the account that many secondary students in the State patronizes private schools in Edo, Anambra and other States where miracle centres are cited. Thus, since many parents encourages their wards to write exams in private centers thereby, making the public secondary schools an object of ridicule even when they offer free WAEC it is of no use to continue such a wasteful adventure any more.

Currently, to register for WAEC a student is expected in pay N26, 000 in Aniocha South Local Government Area.

Can Education Funding Impact of the realization of Quality Education?

Education funding remains a burning debate in the Nigerian education sector till date. The reason for the above assertion rest on the fact that all the needed facilities for the operation of education as a catalyst and development pathfinder revolves on the availability and sustainability of funds, which constitutes the life wire of the education sector.

A country with a dysfunctional and under-funded educational system will often be at risk of increasing illiteracy, insecurity, poor political culture and behavior, poverty, unemployment and uncontrolled population explosion coupled with institutional and sector linked failures. All these are playing out in Nigeria in general and Delta State in particular.

The root of educational underfunding can be rightly traced from the nonchalant attitude the colonial government gave towards the education of the colonized Nigerians. As such, a half baked missionary education was given to few Nigerians who ended up as Clarks, interpreters and other office related roles that is beyond the managerial roles. Moreover, the logic of the colonial economy was tactically situated as a replica of imperial colonial economy that allows for little in-put for maximum out-put. Hence, the colonial government invested massively in sectors that favoured their inordinate ambition as regards primitive capital accumulation while dispossessing the colonized people through the imposition of taxes, encouragement of cash crops production, and building of more law courts, prisons and recruitment of more Police in order to repress and predominate the colonized Nigerians that may want to revolt the system.

The arrival of the colonial education in Nigeria was indeed a replica of British model in terms of structure, curriculum and other areas such as admission. Prior to independence the free universal primary education was launched in western and eastern regions, the same ill news of paucity funding coupled with population explosion while the teachers that taught majority not qualified all these factors aided the crashing of the UPE programme. The UBE programme that replaced the former UPE programme having been in existence for almost two decades now, yet, it is being confronted by factors like underfunding, diminishing education quality, inadequate teachers, politicization of the programme, corruption and so on.

The only good thing about the programme, remains in its capacity towards the expansion of primary and secondary schools in Nigeria in general and Delta State in particular. In terms of quality it has failed, since Nigeria has not attained 99% literacy rate nor be able to reduce the number of out of school children. Logistically, the policy planners as regards citing of new schools failed to take into cognizance of proximity to community residence criteria of UNESCO. Rather, we have more churches and other worship centre’s closer to people at the community and rural areas compared to primary and secondary public schools. In terms of quality education infrastructure, some public schools are already in a bad shape in terms of infrastructures like; building, security, electricity, borehole pipe waters, modern science, language and vocational and technical laboratories, modern electronic gadgets for teaching and learning (Computers, electronic books, zoo applications and Google class etc).

likewise, most of the teachers are not registered or fully licensed by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, some are not computer literate enough to man the technologically driven education system as global trends suggests. This is why; the coronavirus will be more devastating in Nigeria since she has the highest number of out of school children in the world

Education funding in Delta State is nothing but a lip service and highly politicized. Delta is among the States that applied partial minimum wage implementation for teachers in the primary school from salary grade level 8 to 15. Also, the State is notorious for late payments of teacher’s salaries and other entitlements such as gratuities and pensions for retired teachers.

For example, retired teachers since 2015 are yet to be paid their gratuities till date. In the same vein, most public secondary schools in Delta State are minimal compared to the primary schools that are in thousands. The so called free primary and secondary school education that was introduced around 2007 is fast unreliable. For example, WAEC and NABTEB external examination payments were jettisoned in 2016.

Consequently, indigent students will have to provide between N20, 000 to N25, 000 in order to register for these external exams.

The introduction of approved levies by the ministry of education in the state is a paradox of her free primary and secondary school education policy.

Many parents are complaining about the financial burdens they bear in order to send their school age wards to public schools in Delta State. Emordi recalled that as far back as 2010, students in public secondary schools in Ogwashi-Uku paid only N500 for PTA every term and N250 as school fee. While, those who are ready to write external exams like WAEC only provided their passports since it was free. Thus, parents had only a N750 burden to bear back then unlike now in which their fiscal burdens has increased geometrically.

A look at the Delta State budget clearly reveals that huge amount of funds are injected into debt servicing instead of critical sectors like education and health. This ugly situation has resulted to more adults illiterates in Nigeria, poor quality education and difficulties in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 since Nigeria failed to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goals as regards education.

Are there other factors that confront the realization of quality education in Delta State?

Politicization of education

Neo-liberal reforms

Insecurity

Paucity of teachers and poor working conditions for teachers

Politicization of Education

Most of the commissioners for Basic Education in Delta State are non educationist and as such there is some policy inconsistency experienced in the state education system. For example, in 2015, the Delta State under the new governor Okowa’s leadership, jettisoned the Education Marshal initiative of the former governor DR. Emmanuel Uduaghan under the disguise that it lacks legal backings in terms of recruitment and promotion of the officials that participated in the programme. Unfortunately, the Education Marshal that was able to replace street culture that encourages student’s truancy and absenteeism was stopped, instead of the government to reform it and strengthen it to perform better, Delta State that was the originator of such an innovative programme tha accentuated her literacy rate to 97% abandoned it even when States like Anambra and Kaduna adopted it.

Yet, the replacement of the Education Marshals with Electronic Attendance in order to checkmate teacher’s truancy and absenteeism is also not working out as noted by Emordi (2020) some of the shortcomings associated with this reform which according to him, there exist some loopholes with this innovation in the education system in Delta State. First, the electronic attendance is needed in the morning and afternoon. Teachers are found to breach it by going out after the morning clock in then return for the afternoon or forfeit it all together. Second, most schools have no electricity supply. It is therefore left on the person in charge with the device to charge it and get it ready for another work day.

Likewise, if there is no means of charging it due to power failure, or there is no enough network connectivity to enable it function, it will not capture teachers who are present for that day. Thirdly, the person in charge of the device is at risk due to insecurity challenges in the State. Besides, whenever the device is faulty it is returned to the company for fixing at Asaba and the said school will have to make use of manual attendance till such issues are resolved. Finally, since the introduction of the reform, Delta State is yet to top the first five position in students performance in WAEC till date. For example, between 2017 and 2018, her student’s performance in WAEC is 64.86% and 51.83%, which shows a decline.

Judging from the above, if the state retained the Education Marshal Policy plus the introduction of Electronic Attendance, both policies will curb the incessant rate of teachers and leaner’s truancy and absenteeism which is a major bane towards the realization of quality education in public secondary schools in Delta State.

Neo-liberal Reforms

The introduction of neo-liberal policies like currency devaluation, fuel subsidy removal and the commercialization and privatization of the education system have all resulted to the decreasing level of reading culture among students. For example, the 2016 fuel subsidy removal triggered a 300% increase in the prices of goods and services which is as a result of subsidy removal induced inflation.

Yet, the government further devalued the naira incessantly without having a viable economy blueprint, which resulted in the 2016 economy recession that lasted till 2017. Consequently, these austere policies resulted in the high patronage of Ponzi schemes such as MMM, ICHARITY, BET NAIJA by students and parents in order to survive the brutal economy. Many students used money meant for their hostel accommodation, academic project to invest into such dubious schemes. While few benefited from the rob Peter to pay Paul scheme, majority loss some substantial amount of money leading to depression and high rate of suicides.

These austere policy mostly currency devaluation have sparked high patronage by many secondary school drop-outs, students and unemployed graduates in the area of cyber frauds popularly known as Yahoo Yahoo an insidious fraudulent act of defrauding foreigners many thousands and millions of Dollars and Euros. Recently, there is a popular song that makes deride of those who went to school and choose to become unemployed drifters looking for white collar job instead of joining the Yahoo Yahoo cyber fraud bandwagon in order to make it bigger in the society. The song states that Ochuko did not go to school but he rides Benz and as such, school/education is a scam.

These trends have impacted negatively on many students and unemployed Nigerian youths who now see cyber crimes as the only viable means to survive in Nigeria beyond the desert path to Europe that is more deadly than HIV Aids. Thus, there is and would always be a continuous reduction in quality education if these contradictions are left unresolved