I've gathered that the Executive Governor of Benue state, Dr Samuel Ortom has promised to pay students' WAEC fees cutting across all public schools in the state.
While this is a good development as some states in the country are dishing out such beautiful responsibility, yet, I have so many oughts against this move. There are but not limited to the following reasons.
1. Benue people as I know are not a lazy people. Most people stand up to their responsibilities most especially the ones who married and have children. They have the heart to cater for the needs of their wards, even in the face of economic crisis, many parents are up and doing in order to make sure they give to their children what they so deserve to exist and be relevant in their own world.
Most of these parents are either farmers, civil servants or businessmen and women. The circulation of money in the state starts from the civil servant, and so, if they have to spend, the farmers together with the business people would also have to spend. This generally would make the people not to depend solely on the government and then expectantly wait for the government to aid the payment of school and exam fees.
2. Inadequate or total lack of infrastructure. If not for the structures which have been existing since the time of colonial government, and of course have long dilapidated, there wouldn't have been any physical structures for the pupils to stay in and learn. These buildings are near collapsed state which poses danger to the lives of young school children. In other cases these near collapsed structures are not even available in some places, and as such they resort to using tree shades in the named school environment.
First thing first, for any building to last and stand whatever storm, the foundation must first be secured, and grounded. Young school children are not grounded. And this is why it becomes very difficult to cope as they move along the path of academics.
3. Inadequate and lack of qualified manpower. One of the problems education is facing in this part of the world is either it lacks adequate manpower supply or the available hands are not qualified. Yes! It's as serious as that. You can imagine a group of two hundred (200) pupils or students gathering under a mango tree to learn with the help of just a teacher. Just imagine that. The stipulated number of students is the maximum of 50 or less. But because of this inadequacy, the children are clustered and packed like fishes in Sardin tin. Oops!
The second alarming problem is the lack of qualified teachers. And do you blame an accounting student to start teaching Agricultural science? Hello, there is no job! And man has to survive. So to avoid remaining unemployed and face lack, they find themselves doing what they are not supposed to do. You find a well learned teacher of English language teaching English language, Literature in English, Government, CRK, and probably social studies or Civic education in addition. All because he speaks English with fluency. Quite alarming.
4. The last thing I want to talk about is the inability of the government to pay workers' salary in good time. How can and why should the government owe workers their salary for up to a very prolonged period of time. The workers are not happy. (You know the outcome).
All these problems culminated into a very huge lump of setbacks. First thing first, let the government address these areas of education first before thinking of paying students' WAEC fees.
There are many areas government should take care of before entering into what they cannot come out from or start a journey they cannot finish.
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