Decade Blogs - Chuba Ezekwesili - The Hidden Costs of University Strikes

Decade Blogs

Chuba Ezekwesili in his piece for my #YourBlogOnMyBlog Series commemorating my Decade of Blogging writes about the true costs of strikes in the tertiary educational sector in Nigeria.

Blog - To Celebrate My Decade of Blogging

I would not once suggest that he might have experienced another hidden cost first hand by reason of a relation who might have returned home with headaches about the inscrutable, intractable, interminable and incessant default to industrial dispute between academia and the government of the day.

Yet, I have some really enlightening conversations with Chuba, his mother and his brother on Twitter, whilst his blogs when published are quite insightful and knowledgeable in the use of facts and data and in offering useful opinion and thinking points.

On Twitter, he goes by the handle @ChubaEzeks and blogs at http://naijanomics.me/, and I am honoured to have him write for my series.

Students are most affected by the strikes, whether they are in school, graduated or seeking admission. Chuba identifies those areas and laments about the fact that students do not seem to realise how affected they are to get agitated enough to demand engagement, change, accountability and responsibility.

That is in my view, a great shame, indeed.

The Hidden Costs of University Strikes

Got back to Nigeria over a year ago and I’ve had the unfortunate opportunity of experiencing a fuel strike and a Universities Union strike. As should be clear to anyone, strikes negatively affect the economy directly and indirectly. The direct costs of strikes are mostly financial. [BBC News] [Vanguard Nigeria]

According to Reuters, the 2012 fuel strike cost Nigeria $1.2 billion after only 8 days of striking. Also, the Punch newspaper estimates that the total sum in salary for the lecturers during period of the ASUU strike may run into billions of naira. So yes, we’ve lost billions thanks to these strikes, but there’s more to them than financial loss.

The indirect costs are less obvious and perhaps more potent to the economy in the long run. Worse still, these indirect costs tend to be far greater in the skilled sectors-especially the academic sector-than in the non-skill sectors. Why? Cause it has long lasting effects that cannot be solved solely through money. Atrophy of knowledge. Knowledge – like a muscle – declines the less one makes use of it.

Academic schedules are created with strategic amounts of time to ensure that students are able to learn as much as possible. Sadly, the unpredictable nature of strikes immediately interrupts such learning processes. “The academic calendar of the students has already been disrupted. This would mean the adjustment of their timetable and a delay in their year of graduation. The man hours lost over this period would have to be paid for,” notes Professor Yomi Akinyeye, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, the University of Lagos.

Worse still, it creates a wedge in knowledge assimilation. During the strike process, students forget a major part of what had been previously taught. Add this to the fact that with the Nigerian rote method of learning, assimilation is hardly possible. So, with an absence in tutorship, the rate of atrophy is much faster. Consequently, when the strike is over, students are guaranteed to return back to school dumber than they left. How then are they all meant to graduate with Upper Second Class degrees?

Given enough strikes, students can end up spending 2-3 more years attempting to obtain a measly degree. Worst still, by the time these student graduates, they'll be inducted into the one year of NYSC Service. By the end of their NYSC year, few will be retained at their Primary Place of Assignment i.e. where they 'worked'.

Those searching for a job afterwards will be faced with job applications with a requirements like "Applicant must not be older than 24". Consider also that this requirement gets worse as time passes. If one cannot get an entry level job this year due to one's age and lack of work experience, then his/her situation is bound to worsen the next year. This is the reality of thousands of graduates. A system that holds the students back and proceeds to alienate them once they attempt to be economically productive.

Interestingly enough, the consequence of this regressive game of strikes reaches further back to those outside of the University gates: applicants attempting to get into these universities. The delay in the academic calendar of Universities causes a backlog of applicants who end up with more competition over time.

Do the math: the more the applicants to a constant and finite number of universities will only result in the rejection of capable students.

Students will be rejected, not because of their academic inability, but because there’s simply lack of university spaces to accommodate the backlog of applicants. Most of these Secondary School students will have to wait a few years before they can be admitted into these Universities with subpar education.

Within their universities, they will face the same issue of strikes that kept them out of these same universities for so long. Then, they will eventually graduate and be faced with the same age barrier as the rest of those before them.

Sadly, the interesting part of the strike system is that it never affects the two major jousting parties; at least not significantly. The Government suffers no adverse effect from it; after all, the professors are not drilling oil, so their strike is inconsequential to them.

The professors on the other hand do not significantly feel the weight of such strikes as most of them probably have speaking engagements and other projects on the side. Best part of it, they can’t get fired; ask Nyesom Wike, the Education Minister, he tried. [ThisDay Online] [Premium Times]

Once we begin to understand where the incentives lie, we begin to understand who really endures the most of these strikes: the students. Many of whom might be unaware of the true cost of the strike and might just be happy to get back to school.

The game of strike in the education sector might have ended now, but assuredly, another strike will commence once the $1.3bn Government payout runs out. There’s something to continuity that takes more than $1.3bn. The money is nothing but a Band-Aid for a problem that cuts much deeper. It would take the overhaul of a system that encourages incompetence and lack of accountability.

Like Mr. Akin's persistent 10 years of blogging - which has made him proficient - adopting an efficient system improves efficiency & specialisation.

Besides, students must understand the need to become more vocal about how they choose to influence their academic lives, no one bears the cost more than them.

Students were disappointedly quiet during this ASUU strike, and unless they become vocal about the accountability of funds supposedly doled out to ‘improve their education’, they’ll be nothing but pawns on the chessboard of power. Those with the most to lose need to be the most vocal.

Opinion: Homosexuality and the confusion of beliefs in a secular setting

The duty of the state to children

Two cases of Christianity running into conflict with homosexuality in the courts bring to the fore the need for people with devout beliefs to understand the extents to which they by law will be allowed to influence debate in a broader secular society.

Both cases had to do with access to children and more pertinently access to the children’s minds in terms of fostering and teaching.

Good parents, indeed

There is no doubt that Mr and Mrs Johns, aged 65 and 62 respectively have been good foster parents having fostered 15 children with four grown children and grandchildren of their own, they deserve credit.

However, whilst they have license as parents to bring up their own children in the way they see fit, right, with love, with care and all the religious control they might have to bear on the impressionable minds of their own children – foster care involves the state.

The state is by and large secular, recognising people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and persuasions whilst protecting the rights of both majority and minority to operate with civility towards each other in the public space.

The changing society

It behoves the state not to place children in view of extant rights and protections in the parental care of people who might trammel the open-minded broader view of the world a child will have when interacting with society and this where fundamentalist religious beliefs and broader secularist thinking conflicts.

The state is not denying the Johns’ the right to believe whatever doctrines they adhere to, that is a right they exercise with full prerogative, but where the state feels that parental care under fostering guidelines will expose a child to teachings that will narrow a child’s outlook good as they might seem, the state must act in the interests of the child and protect that child from influences that could put it at some disadvantage when the child decides to express itself in a wider community.

The headline does suggests Christian beliefs lose out to gay rights [Daily Mail], but the broader issue is beyond that catchy title, the secular state must give all beliefs equality before the law and perform the balancing act of preventing the undue influence of those who have beliefs over those who believe differently or have no persuasion whatsoever to believe either way.

Don’t confuse entitlement with freedom of expression

The second case concerns Robert Haye [Pink Paper], a secondary school teacher in South London who as a Seventh-Day Adventist expressed reprehensible views about homosexuality before a class of students aged 15-16 and in another class of pupils aged 13-14 suggested those who worship on a Sunday are worshipping the devil.

Mr Haye is quite entitled to his beliefs and he is free to share them with anyone who is an adult, a free moral agent with the right, opportunity and mien to challenge such assertions if they deem fit.

However, when children are in a school, they are wards of the state that dictates a curriculum and programme of education that prepares the children for the world they live in.

Forgetting responsibilities

Mr Haye as a teacher is in a position of authority and influence, it means he has a responsibility to understand that his class is not an extension of the temple wherein he worships, he is paid to educate guided by a syllabus and not to fulminate contemning those who have a difference of opinion or beliefs from his own.

The children in his class will come from varied backgrounds many of which Mr Haye might find antithetical to his belief system but the state cannot allow a situation where a child is made to feel inferior for any reason in a school environment – the issue here again is not about Mr Haye’s rights to have his beliefs but about understanding his responsibilities in a secular setting under the employ of the state with access to influence children.

The society is diverse

That is where Mr Haye was lacking in perception and judgement; that he was relieved of his commission as a teacher was a just consequence and his lament that his career has been destroyed is a situation of his own making – it should not be blamed on Christianity or the abrading his rights to believe whatever he does but on the fact that he was lacking in judgement when he expressed those views in the wrong setting and before the wrong audience.

The judge was unequivocal in his assessment of the matter in saying, “This case is not about the right of a teacher to hold sincerely-held beliefs based on the Bible in relation to homosexuality or attendance at church on Sundays. It has been about how those beliefs and views are manifested in the context of teaching in schools with young people with diverse sexuality, backgrounds and beliefs.”

He could not do it

No one was asking Mr Haye to recant his beliefs, what the state was asking of him was if he is to be placed before young people as an employee of the state to teach, he should keep to the script. Where he has opinions on a subject outside that remit he must be conversant of the fact that the young people before him, are from such diverse backgrounds that his views must be all-encompassing for inclusiveness not for division and discrimination.

If Mr Haye cannot pass that basic test, he has no business being a teacher in a multi-cultural, multi-dimensional and highly diverse setting like an inner-city school.

Further reading

In other blogs, I have been impressed with the way judges have been able to absent themselves from sentimentality and promote the secularist nature of our democratic societies and nowhere was that better expressed than in this blog - The case for State law over religious guidance.

The bit that caught my attention was this – “Legislation to protect views held purely on religious grounds could not be justified, it is an irrational idea and it is also divisive, capricious and arbitrary.”

Click on the link to read the rest of the views of the aptly named, Lord Justice Laws.

Nigeria: A typical Nigerian communication?

Assistance needed!

I should be incensed and angry but maybe not but it requires I make a very pertinent statement because it is necessary.

Very early this morning, I received an email from a Nigerian seeking “info from as per”, well, accommodation, grants and scholarships in the Netherlands for Africans, especially Nigerians to a particular university in the Netherlands – the text will be posted later in the blog.

Anyway, the person who I do not know had used the email address on my blog to seek this information – it is evident it was his first time on my blog because the trace evidence of visits to my blog shows a search was made about “Nigerians living in the Netherlands” just around the time I received the email.

Basic research

For that information, I visited the said university website where I believe such information will be and as any intuitive person with initiative would be expected to do and as I expected the enquirer to do – promptly and efficiently.

As I closed the email in response I decided it was necessary to clearly state that in emails sent to strangers first impressions could be deterministic – here I was receiving an email from a university prospect which was already too familiar, poorly punctuated and not properly closed.

The more I read the email the more I felt it was necessary to first constructively criticise the man for his poor presentation and in my usual acerbic state I tried to reinforce that need by adding the threat of publishing that email as a sign of sloppiness that would not serve well in seeking admission to a university.

Context and presentation

If the said person had read my blog and most especially the one I wrote the about Facebook and communication [*] the day before, he would have noticed that I am a stickler for the proper use of language even if it comes from a phone.

The email in its presentation had every semblance of a “419 letter” by its informality, context and content; the subject heading was “Assistance needed!” which I would normally never give any attention but I gave it the benefit of doubt and responded anyhow.

Not smart by half

For my troubles, I received an email soon afterwards; grudging thanks, arrogance, defiance and excuses, with a lecture as to how I should behave to other Nigerians and a reprimand to practice what I preach.

I would say this man appears to be smart, but not really smart enough – whilst I did assume the position of being unable to facilitate his admission I did say, “if your intentions and purposes are without prejudice, you have every chance of fulfilling your dream if your qualifications are sufficiently exciting and your ambition shows the promise of an interesting mind and career.”

The Nigerian burden or naivety

I was suspicious of Nigerians; I am Nigerian by heritage and I have been met by people in my 20 years of living in Europe who question our motives and intentions – it would be remiss of me not to use the same filter to ensure that what we legitimate residents abroad do to in small ways give Nigeria a good name is not affected by new entrants with ulterior motives.

No Nigerian anywhere in the world should miss that fact and it would be naïve to expect a different attitude in that respect, as far back as two decades ago, I went through that filter at the British Embassy in Nigeria because seemingly honest applicants turned out to have ulterior motives.

Please don’t tempt me at all

What that man thinks he deserves or not should have been introspective rather than blurted out in the response he sent to me – I would hope he has the chameleon tendencies to be better presented in his application to that university because I honestly think if he or any person from anywhere in the world exhibits that kind of attitude, a future of great frustration is imminent – strangers can both be helpful and deleterious; rarely indifferent.

Like Nigerians would say, “A word is enough for the wise.” Do not unnecessarily incur my wrath. I do wish the man every success in his endeavours, if only he was just a tad less froward.

Our communication, unedited apart from the particular elements of personal information which have been redacted appears below certain comments might appear within brackets, those who know me know what to expect, those who do not should please see the masthead of my blog again.

His initial email

Hi Akin,i am Fesobi by name.i live in lagos.i came about your email through your blog.i need some vital info from as per accommodation,cost of living and scholarship and grant available in Netherlands for african students-precisely Nigerians- that want to study.i am seeking admission in utrecht university.i humbly await your swift response.THANKS and God bless you.

My response

Dear Fesobi,
Unfortunately, I have never studied in the Netherlands but I have tried to obtain some information from the University of Utrecht website regarding the matters on which you enquire.

I do not from your email see much information about what course you are applying for and level of study your application is prospecting for, you have not said if your application has been formally made or you have gotten as far as being offered a place for which you need to find the means.

This is the Students Desk [URL link was provided] usually for prospective students with the attendant email addresses to contact.

This covers Scholarships & Grants [URL link was provided] available to students depending on what you are studying for.

And here you can find matters concerning accommodation [URL link was provided]

The fact is this is information you could have easily obtained by visiting the University of Utrecht site or performing a search using Google, usually the best place to get information from is the university, they have been running admissions and students' services for decades, they probably have the best insights and ideas for how to manage students than any rumour you might have heard anywhere else.

Like I said earlier, I have never studied in this country so I would not be in any position to facilitate your application process or help your entry into this country - if your intentions and purposes are without prejudice, you have every chance of fulfilling your dream if your qualifications are sufficiently exciting and your ambition shows the promise of an interesting mind and career.

I wish you the very best in your pursuits - If I might offer some constructive criticism, it goes without saying that your punctuation and context in an email to a stranger does leave much to be desired - too familiar, proper nouns in lower case, bad punctuation and inappropriate closing - I am sure if you had read my blog you would have had an idea of what I would expect in any communication you send to me.

NB: Do not tempt me to display your email as an example of people who should not be offered admissions in any foreign university, I had part of my education in Nigeria and I really would have considered this utterly sloppy, in the end, if I do use it in a blog, it would have a pseudonym not your name.

With the kindest regards.

Akin

His response

Thanks for your prompt response Akin,I appreciate.I also appreciate your constructive criticism of my use of tenses,this I think its due to the reason that I typed from a phone.You will also noticed that my mail was not paragraphed-I use a nokia s40 phone which I know you know doesn t completely works like a computer. However,I think you missed it towards the end of your response.You sounded like I was seeking your help to facilitate my entrance into the country.If you go through my mail,I only asked you for information pertaining to accommodation,cost of living and scholarship and this I asked knowing that you are a Nigerian living in the country and probably might be of help-help indeed!.More also,I dont think I deserved to be threatened the way threatened me-just for asking for information? Sometimes I wonder why people who preach and teach never follow what they preach and teach.I also wonder why we Nigerians treat ourselves the you just treated me.I
went through your blog and read some of your articles about our leaders.Akin,we all are complaining about leaders,what about the way we individually treat ourselve?Well I am awaiting the university s decision by May ending,I pray its positive-I need to fulfil a dream and you can t stop me by the use of your blog.Still typing from my phone so pardon my errors in any form. Regard

Closing Comment

Apparently, the man is aggrieved that I have treated him badly and I have been hypocritical rather than constructively critical – well, I was honest, forthright and basically objective in my view, regardless of nationality the response I gave would not have been any different apart from the specific reference to how I felt standards of education and common courtesy had fallen in Nigeria.

The man deserves only the courtesy of being given this URL as a response to his email, if he deserves more, time will tell, but I do hope he has as much sense as an old cow – eat the hay and leave the bailing wire – read and digest the useful parts of it all.