Don’t let your schooling interfere with education

October 16, 2013 by Dr. Anderson Uvie-Emegbo

Dr. Anderson Uvie-Emegbo
| credits: File copy

I am justifiably angry, my heart is heavy and I have a deeply troubling burden. Today is the anniversary of the start of my undergraduate journey through the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in South West, Nigeria. That journey took me eight years, five months and six days for a six year medical course, losing over two-and-half years due to strikes and communal clashes.

In about two weeks, over 1,000 leading thinkers and doers would assemble for the much anticipated 2013 World Innovation Summit on Education in Doha, Qatar.

WISE is an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action in order to build the future of education through innovation. WISE is a global reference in new approaches to education.

As I prepare to attend the summit, I am deeply pained that while the world gathers to innovate and collaborate; students in public universities in Nigeria have been out of school for over three months – due to a strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

Any nation that deprioritises values-driven education is a breeding ground for economic scavengers and is destined for intellectual enslavement, ready to be relegated to the backwaters of economic stagnation and indeed global irrelevance.

Nigeria may once again have one of the largest unofficial delegations at the summit. We cannot afford to turn this into a pleasure trip. There is so much catching up to do. This nation has not made the shortlist of any of the annual WISE Awards that recognise and reward excellence in innovation. We must do something!

We have deep challenges in our educational system in areas not limited to access, quality of learning, retention of quality faculty and funding. It is time to step in and be a part of the solution and not sit as an arm chair critic.

The 2013 Webometrics World University Rankings gave some Nigerian universities cause to cheer. At 8th position in Africa, my alma mater is the highest ranked school in Nigeria.  Ordinarily I should be proud but having taken a hard look at the data I am not. Let us not celebrate our national show of shame in a hurry. The world is watching and laughing!

Perhaps the three most recognised global university rankings are the Academic Ranking of World Universities, also known as the Shanghai Ranking, QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings powered by Thomson Reuters.

In the QS World University Rankings, only 12 universities in Africa made its top 800 list    – seven  from South Africa and five from Egypt.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2012-2013 ranks only four schools in Africa (all from South Africa) within its top 400 list. Its ranking uses 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas:

Teaching: the learning environment (worth 30 per cent of the overall ranking score)

This examines the quality of the teaching and learning environment of each institution from both the student and the academic perspective.

Research: Volume, income and reputation (worth 30 per cent).

This criteria looks at a university’s reputation for research excellence among its peers and its research income, scaled against staff numbers.

Citations: Research influence (worth 30 per cent)

“This is the single most influential of the 13 indicators, and looks at the role of universities in spreading new knowledge and ideas. It summarises whose research has stood out, has been picked up and built on by other scholars and, most importantly, has been shared around the global scholarly community to push further the boundaries of our collective understanding, irrespective of discipline”.

Industry income: Innovation (worth 2.5 per cent)

This looks at a university’s ability to help industry with innovations, inventions and consultancy. It suggests the extent to which businesses are willing to pay for research and a university’s ability to attract funding in the competitive commercial marketplace — useful indicators of institutional quality.

International outlook: Staff, students and research (worth 7.5 per cent).

This category looks at diversity on campus and to what degree academics collaborate with international colleagues on research projects. It examines the ability of a university to attract undergraduates, postgraduates and the best faculty from all over the world.

Excluded from its list are universities whose research output amounted to fewer than 200 a year.

Here are a few questions for our university leaders and administrators:

Does your university meet these criteria?

What SMART plan of action is your institution implementing to improve your position in any and all of these criteria?

Have you designed and started implementing a system that consistently develops in your students the skills gaps the world needs?

How is your institution using technology to create a learner-led, learner-focused and learner-centred curriculum that is relevant to the current needs of businesses and the society?

Does your training breed entrepreneurs?

How disruptive are the systems in your institution?

Where are the innovation hubs within your institution?

What one area of excellence is your institution renowned for or do you want to be known for in the next two to five years?

How relevant are the faculty you have?

How prepared is your institution for the disruption that Massive Open Online Courses bring?

Is the learning you provide, mobile and social?

We need a radical approach to meet the managerial challenges businesses face. Educational systems must do more with less. We must channel resources into recruiting, retaining and incentivising quality faculty. Performance of schools should be tied to the quality of their alumni in the workplace.

The focus should be on the level of skills and competencies gained in the course of study. We must strengthen teacher certification, training and professional development. We must come up with creative learning solutions that work for our environment.

Our curriculum must prepare all students for a life of productivity, intrapreneurship, ethical leadership, social responsibility, change, innovation, excellence, service delivery and lifelong learning. The system must turn out adequately skilled, “fit for purpose” graduates that organisations need. People who can hit the ground running.