Secondary School Education and Nigeria Policy Reforms 2003-2011
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Transcript of Secondary School Education and Nigeria Policy Reforms 2003-2011
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Education without Knowledge gain: The vulnerability of children and
youth in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dayo Olorunfemi1
Research & Development consultant Abuja
Email: [email protected]
December 2013
Abstract:
This study seeks to investigate the risk of knowledge deficiency found in juvenile and the issues of data secrecy and information reporting manipulation within sub-Saharan Africa educational school system. Major observations focus
is on the Nigerian public school administration and the unconscious learning processes affecting students level of understanding. A diagnosis of academics & event period of 2010-2012 under review, manual records of junior and senior secondary school data was collected to measure quality assurance in education and the effects of unsustainable schooling system which had placed limit to
problem-solving initiatives/creativity of African children & youth in this 21st century. This study also examines empirically the relationship between
sustainable development and policy reforms proxy by human development index for Nigeria economy in 2003-2011. This was done to account for nations poverty reduction gap and instability of leadership policy measure. Employing
numerical taxonomy, it was found that the Nigeria economic reform classified as group within 2003, 2004 & 2005 policy directions tends to contribute significantly to reduction in poverty because leaders policies was explicit &
understood by the people. The 2006 policy measures been classified as first group, had direction on human capital development, yet with more income
centric approaches and positive influence on poverty reduction. In contrast, the third category of groups (2010 & 2011) was found to be a period with negative principal component score observed as potential indicator of long run policy
disaster which requires territorial & global researchers action including leaders attention to prevent the people livelihood from been more at risk of poverty in
the nearest future.
Keywords: Quality assurance, education intelligence, knowledge deficiency risk, internal baseline architecture. 1 Member of BSR Analysis Team Abuja Nigeria. For helpful comments and discussions on this
research and article on productivity and economic reforms in Nigeria, I am grateful to Mrs
Josephine I. Medupin the immediate past principal of Bishop Delisle College lokoja, Raheem
Kola, Seun Olorunfemi and Rotimi Olorunfemi for participations and unique support during this
investigation. All errors are my own.
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Introduction
Having an unexamined educational system with less regards for optimization, is a process that is existing but undesirable. For the government
& people of sub-Saharan Africa to reap the gains of investments made towards education, there is need for existing teachers to rethink on todays methodologies and philosophy of productivity measurement which hovers around mere intuitive decisions and a neglect of education intelligence techniques. The peoples of every continent irrespective of their gender
demography, cultural differences, social inclination and religious backgrounds are now alive to financial benefits as a quest to satisfy their micro and macro
consumptions or investment goals. Likewise, the aggregate strata of the society have other expectations that are automatically embedded as object of risk in all forms of decisions made towards development. Such expectations could either
be a statement of needs or demands; and more often assumed impliedly due to the nature of human transactions. Every human generation is bound by its own peculiar problems which are triggered by human activities, decisions or by
previous errors and events which cannot be linked to natural disasters. Different society have diverse understanding concerning solution approach to
tackling known problems but, uncertainties inherited through continuous neglect of new methodologies in investment decisions for human education and development should be the base towards finding real solutions to known and
unexpected problems in human endeavours in sub-Saharan Africa and even in other continents of the world. As it is written in the book of Hosea 4:6 my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, therefore, citizens of a nation are exposed to high risk when leaders and teachers decides to focus more on resources based solutions to schooling rather than knowledge based tactics.
A wide spectrum of people are trapped with the thinking that they are educated
because they have develop fluency in grammar, have bachelors degree and
even possess doctorate degrees in order to secure high rewarding jobs to
improve personal social status and life achievements. The issue is, prowess in
grammar and even a PhD certificate is not a centerpiece to problem-solving
initiatives, desired reduction in poverty and long run improvement in human
development within the region of sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st century.
Therefore, African leaders including teachers and even the future leaders of
tomorrow will now be required to rethink on new educational framework that
can challenge and reshape the innate minds of her human populace towards a
more unique and reformed direction in accountability of research as a spring
board to scale up human productivity in educational institutions as well as
other sectors of economic development.
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This investigation is partitioned into a two in one study, using a popular
Yoruba proverb of early 1960s in the Nigeria history education without hoe
and cutlass is never complete. Agricultural work is the labour of our land; that
he who fails to work shall end up stealing this Idiom implies that education
without learning tools & knowledge is never complete. That Intelligence work of
agriculture & other discipline should be sustained to improve human standard
of living else, corruption await those who fail to work. Every human race have
claims to desire knowledge, but just few have the insight and pains to seek new
knowledge to add value to human livelihood and activities. The human mind
tends to experience imbalance at different stage of development due to
immeasurable gap embedded in education and knowledge gains. With inference
to econometrics thinking, there are proofs that what is not been measured
cannot be controlled. Though, global leaders and her institutions have indeed
made unique decisions by creating & allocating funds drawn from fiscal
policies into education and research institutions. Beyond this investments, how
often do the leaders and teachers care about the understanding & assimilation
of lessons learnt by children and youth in schools? This study is therefore
premised on the foundation that unconscious learning approach of teachers is
a function of impaired understanding for the students. Bluntly put, that the
lack of knowledge of a teacher will increase the vulnerability of his or her
students during schooling and aftermath. For a nation to reap the future value
of present investment in education there is a question mark on research &
development (R&D) as the hallmark of knowledge for problem-solving in areas
of human and economic development. For example, If newly married couples
that have been tested ok for child bearing by a doctor and yet, the couple
makes conscious decision not to have children between a period of five years,
probable because they so much desire to have fun or think the time isnt right.
They might create a problem they cannot control when their instinct later leads
them otherwise. Ironically, when a leader decides to invest in Research that is
not integrated with Development phase (real output or impact evaluation) by
the domestic researchers who work in a citadel of knowledge, then
accountability in research is the alternative forgone.
Statement of research problems
The leaders and peoples of developing nations are experiencing the relevancy and risk of information age intermittently. And the freedom of information act (FOIA) are signed and passed into law to improve transparency and
accountability of governance to the people concurrently. Ratification of this law has not being translated to knowledge of the law because the existing manual
documentation and procedures are still undergoing significant intervention by
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humans who have high tendencies of data secrecy and information reporting manipulation.
Objectives of the study
The fundamental aim and objective of this research is to develop an optimized
system process that will support the continuous monitoring and surveillance of
educational quality to control the psychological risk of unsustainable schooling
and its consequence on human development in Sub-Saharan Africa. The
intention is to minimize the significant human errors made by teachers during
computation of student result, to explain the feedback effects of a teacher input
on student output sample & also to create a structured data warehouse to
monitor age and gender inequality of minors. To satisfy the aims and objectives
of the research, the following research questions set out below were
formulated:
1. Of what value is the search for knowledge if what is thought in schools
fails to query and re-engineer the human minds to think about 2process
improvement or production?
2. How can students remember what they have being taught in school when
the teacher input & methods as a function of performance output of
student are left unanalyzed?
3. How can we visualize and control the unexpected data redundancy rate
embedded in measuring education index component of human
development value?
4. Do we need to set higher benchmark of performance tolerance level for
tutor and teachers to improve quality of education?
5. What impact have sub Saharan Africa policies achieved with physical
infrastructural resources, when the objective of learning has been
forgone?
2 Process improvement: is the systematic approach to closing of process or system performance gaps through streamline and cycle time reduction, and identification and elimination of causes of below specifications quality, process variation and non-value-adding activities. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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Literature Review
A great philosopher once made reference to education & he said, what I
here, I forget, but what i see I remember (Socrates).
In the 21st century schooling system, we cannot hide from the reality that we
live and study in a more complicated & distracted environment that humans
has never known. There are large population of teachers who are well aware of
the situation in the past but are less conscious of what they learnt from their
forebear which now have measureable difference with present social demands,
and particularly, its influence on the brain and mind of students that depend
on the knowledge base of tutors including parents. From a cognitive learning
perspective, learning involves the transformation of information in the
environment into knowledge that is stored in the mind. Learning therefore
occurs when new knowledge is acquired or existing knowledge is modified by
experience3.
Theoretical framework: Gestalt psychologists led by Max Wertheimer (1880 -
1943), Wolfgang Kohler (1887 1967) and Kurt Koffka (1886 1941) have made significant investigations and contributions in order to find measures of
reducing the complexity of the objects and distraction in our world. They proposed gestalt (shape) laws and views that can be adapted in understanding
how humans should think of problems as a whole. This made Max Wertheimer to have considered thinking to happen in two ways: productive and reproductive approaches to problem-solving. Productive thinking according to Max is solving a problem with insight. This was viewed as a quick insightful unplanned response to situations and environmental interaction. While
Reproductive thinking is solving a problem with previous experiences and what is already known (Max Wertheimer 1945). For example if an economics teacher tries to explain the concept of demand and supply. He/she starts by definition
of terms, then he explain the law of demand and supply using graphical models and further use hypothetical data with examples contained in the
recommended textbook for teachers & students. When we have a case scenario such as this, the teacher has successfully engaged in reproductive thinking (this is common with teachers) using what is already known to him through a
perfected idea & solution of the author. This approach might not spring up desired query from students to gain understanding during lessons. In contrast,
productive thinking requires the teacher to redefine the terms in his/her personal thought and words. Then he/she state the law guiding the concept of demand & supply to explain the graphical models using selected product &
3 AOU asiae university chapter 5 learning theories paper
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services type familiar to the students in their environment in order to draw attention plus query arousal which he/she quickly find answers to using
insight connected to the mind of student for desired understanding. Then references are made to recommended textbook required for assignment and
further study to correct student mistakes & thinking. In other words, for a teacher to continually think productively during class lessons, he/she should perceive student learning as cognitive in nature where prior and proper
preparation prevent poor performance of his/her methodology. As this is an idea leveraged from project management, the researcher believed that productive thinking should be the standard benchmark for cognitive learning
to drive teachers towards seeking new knowledge which is shared effective for student understanding and assimilations of lessons. Alas, reproductive
thinking breads duplication of efforts, guess work and less interest of teachers in knowledge modifications for sustainable learning and student performance.
In furtherance to the theoretical background of this investigation, human capital development is a knowledge based tool that should be restructured to
drive economic growth and long run development. Using the structure of endogenous growth model (Romer, 1986) which tries to incorporate some of the
development variable like human capital into growth framework, but with more emphasis been focused on technological change resulting from Research and Development (R&D) investment that creates a greater variety of goods, or
improves the quality of existing goods and services in the main form of innovation recognized by the endogenous growth literature following Romer (1986, 1990) as a view contained in Economic and financial review (volume 44,
No. 3, September 2006 report of Central Bank of Nigeria). Though, there are global proves & evidences that economic investment into human capital
development thus drive positive change in real gross domestic product (RGDP) of a developed nation. The continuous argument is how this benefit would be achieved in developing nations and in sub-Saharan African nations were the
human standard of living is low in reality and when measured through index of human development value (less than 0.500 to base index of 1) conducted by
the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) rating of yearly performances of nations & continents. Other arguments in support of human capital are the size or proportion of income requirements that, both the public
& private sectors should invest now towards accomplishing productive output of human capital in the long run. The evidences from sub-Saharan Africa axis which is proxy by the Nigerian economic data 1980-2008, shows that
investments in human capital development is equally likely to affect real economic growth negatively even with unstable & increased funding between
1999-2008 (see Regression coefficient table in appendix A). Though this evidence was statistically insignificant at 5% level; its direction of negative t-statistic is of relevance to control macroeconomic policy measures of sub-
Saharan African government in the long run due to prior negation of estimation by Moses F. Out & Ade O. Adenuga 2006 using capital expenditure data on
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education (1970-2003, see Economic and financial review volume 44/3 September 2006).
Conceptual framework:
The lessons from history are that, during financial crisis the economy tends to stagnate. But during Education crisis, the state & economy find it very difficult to identify the root cause of this problem. It is an undisputable fact
that education is a tool to reduce poverty (World Bank view). On a global reasoning, the government & existing regulatory institutions have ignored the risk associated with education. Because the gains from investment in
education tends to be un-measureable in the short run, we are therefore tempted to assume or neglect the operational and psychological risk embedded
in school system structure. This world has experience uncountable events where the management of financial institutions have been investigated and found to have rock the boat due to personal ambitions and poor corporate
governance system. These practices & events are thus inherent even in an un-economic sector where education and learning is believed to be a double edged
sword to human development. According to James L. King 1998, all firms are susceptible to the risk of a loss in value from events such as competitive actions, economic changes and management decisions. James however framed
operational risk in the context of financial institutions in terms of cause, loss and event. Explaining that loss is the economic loss in the value of the firm, a loss is triggered by an event, and causes are the assignable or chance causes
for the event. James brief further those assignable (controllable) causes are attributable to factors that can be eliminated; significant loss due to causes
such as human error, fraud and system failures. This significant loss therefore, should be premised into educational institutions to limit the vulnerability of children and youth whom will form the leaders and teachers of the next
generations. If we claim that todays social conflicts are large product of primary, secondary and tertiary schooling system. We therefore adapt Shewhart (1980) definition of industrial quality control which introduced a
method to prevent defects by measuring process variability, and used the measures to determine assignable causes based on famous theories of
industrial engineering proposed in 1931 according to James report.
However, to have an effective risk management framework for schooling system improvement, there must be an information technology tools to control errors and events reoccurrences within the operational processes of learning and
decision making by school managements, teachers and regulatory institutions. Since there is an acceptable believe that parents sent their children to school to
develop their knowledge base in term of learning and character, we therefore hold the notion that intervention to control tutors defects by measuring teaching methodology impact on student performances will help to increase
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quality assurance in education using intelligent tutoring system (ITS)4 designs and education intelligence framework.
Proposed Education intelligence framework:
Education intelligence is a learning process and a metric of human capital valuation of teachers worth & technique to control psychological risk (unsustainable schooling) and its severity on student capabilities, hindrances to entrepreneurship and standard of living improvement.
Education intelligence (EI) by working definition is a process which samples
productivity index of teachers as input requirements to diagnose the human
problems and analyzes the inputs being transformed into patterns representing
signals of methodology efficiency; the needs for technical improvement or the
action needed for a change of methods to aid understanding and knowledge
growth of students.
Assumptions:
i. That the productive thinking approaches adapted by a classroom teacher will determine the degree of interest formed in the human mind on a
specific subject matter. ii. Without positive formation of interest, no knowledge can be gained and
acquired by students. iii. The expected benchmark is that quality of education output tends to
increase with increasing rate of student performance growth.
iv. Understanding of lessons learnt by students is a factor which triggers higher performances as metric of qualitative delivery of a teacher.
In other words, education intelligence can also be viewed as a risk
management technique that exposes school managers to operational failures of
teaching methodologies with school wide variation in services delivery to
students. This technique helps to increase conscious learning, understanding
& knowledge for students. EI framework is a technique that enhance and
speedup process of risk assessment powered by internal baseline architecture5
of the 21st century schooling system which cannot be ignored in this era of
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_tutoring_system
5 Internal baseline architecture: is the skeletal structure of a school with an origin & direction to explain the feedback effects of a teacher input on student output sample.
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information technology. Education intelligence philosophy was drawn from
business intelligence algorithm and predictive analytic technology, as such,
schools administrators, teachers, students, parents, alumni, education
regulatory agencies and government at all levels must now be alive to the
realities of educational external distractions like social networks and TV or
media programs with far reaching distortional abilities to the juvenile minds
quests for creativity and developmental knowledge.
Rationales for the need of intelligence in African schools.
EI is a means to an end and not an end in itself. This implies that school
managements are now required to intensively motivate their staff (teachers) to
re-think on additional techniques or methods that could be used to drive and
engineer the mind of students to the subjects/fields of study that are been
taught or learnt.
Technically, there is a bandwagon effect from school owners, managers, alumni
and even government who have continuously won awards for funding of
physical building projects for infrastructural development of schools. This no
doubt is a basic requirement for learning improvement; but it does not capture
in real terms the objective of learning which in essence ought to be targeted at
knowledge impartations in uplifting and/or improving human psychological
assimilation & adaptation and a conscious effort to help drive sustainable
economic growth that can engender the much needed increase in the
understanding & performances of students in chosen fields of study. Because
education is an input and a part-engine-wheel to shape the city of a peoples
dream, there is a need for intelligence technology in sub-Saharan schools to
champion the course of attaining a sustainable educational growth using
process of continuous investigation and sampling of students performance
marks. This is with aimed at understanding the strength and weakness of
students in certain subjects of study (e.g. per term/session), and further
calling the subject teachers to explain their perceived causes of upward or
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downward performance index of students which should be expressed in
graphical trend patterns. The application of education intelligence as a tool of
motivation and dialog between school management and teachers ought to be in
question and answer formats in order to induce the desired rethink and search
for new method to imparting knowledge to students. To this end therefore, EI is
geared towards achieving continuous educational sustainability and efficiency
in schools.
Requirements of Education Intelligence as a Driver in Learning Process
The Investment in education at the nursery, primary and secondary level
requires close monitoring & evaluation with integrated understanding of salient
parameter of learning. EI instruments require the use of relational database
program with compatibility of student record analysis to scale-up the learning
process towards decision support for teachers and school managers that need
instant feedback information as lesson learned from existing teaching
methodologies. The application and implementation of EI techniques should
not be perceived as tools to apportion blame or condemnation of teachers by
school management, but it usage is to serve as standards for performance
review of the students output per the teachers input towards a re-evaluative
process in alignment to knowledge expectations and patterning for the future
(That which cannot be seen, yet we expect).
Sequel to EI utility, the foundation and root cause of problems in sub-Saharan
Africa educational system can be traced to a continuous usage of intuitive
method in productivity evaluation of teachers output. Intuition as basis of
decision making for education manager is more of an art than science;
therefore it is paramount to unlock the secret data of students which is kept
hidden in the manual dossiers reports. The data been collated and analyzed
will constitute the seed of establishing the West African educational system
surveillance of schools efficiency level. The investment made towards EI by the
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management of each public & private schools will thus yield an intrinsic return
on investment as a significant measure of asset in human value in the long
run. How? The revelation begins by analyzing performance patterns using class
level index & trends; proportional measurement of improvement or setbacks;
content analysis of teaching methodology & teaching notes and finally, decision
making process leveraged from the value of information produced as utility and
requirement for teachers needs for re-training or adaptation of modified
methodologies. For example, if a teacher is subjected to undergo further
training and that teacher performance trend(current worth) is not assessed,
then the teacher and his or her supervisor is likely to experience difficulty in
conducting post-training impact of teachers productivity or the return on re-
training investment. Likewise, the long term performance patterns sample for
each teacher could be transcribed as parameter of a teachers promotion merit
base and knowledge sharing formula among subject teachers in different
schools.
Strategic Advantage of EI over Intuitive Basis of Decision Making
For schools to fully benefit from EI technology, the system must be setup in a
robust nature. For robustness to be actualized, there is a need for a change in
traditional educational philosophy: The African perception of todays education
managers & teachers hover around the notion that low performances in
continuous assessment and in examinations is largely caused by high level of
un-seriousness of the student. As a cognitive researcher, we reject this
philosophy. Arguably, using a pro-active scenario where class average scores of
students is computed for 1st CA test per subject and then, the mean score is
been used as the statistics to control the throughput cost of teaching
methodologies at intervals and likewise to improve teaching approaches
towards expectation of higher class average performance in the 2nd CA test
conducted per subject per term. This procedure thus create steps for
synchronization of methods used as input by the teacher to enhance the
understanding & assimilation level for the students during terminal revision, to
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probably attain even higher examination grades per student. Furthermore, the
desired increase in learning process for the teacher is paramount to boost
information for the students through instant class average statistic for the
basis of self-appraisal and need for seriousness, need for additional
commitment to study and encouragement towards higher efforts. This
experimentation see teaching & learning methods as the significant key input
factors that can stimulate student interest for knowledge to produce better
output. Therefore, the traditional education philosophy needs to be reviewed to
help students at all level of learning.
Consequent upon this, to achieve effective teaching evaluation, a teacher
is prone to focus her sole attention on the strength of his/her top grade
student(s) and the weaker students are often neglected. This instance and its
continuous occurrences have demoralizing effect on the weaker students (slow
learners) and often lead to segregation among peer-groups or classmates. This
demoralizing tendency should be tagged as Noise to learning when it is
administer by a teacher. In other words, EI as an approach to improvement in
teaching does not imply that top grade student should be discouraged from
flying higher; what EI framework proposed is that students with faster learning
abilities (top grade) should be encouraged to increase personal interaction with
the weaker students in the class. The implication of this type of noise for the
teacher is that an over-reliance or focus on the highest grade of student marks
per subject as statistic and judgment of performance growth is not objective,
thus this statistic remain an extreme score which is far-apart from the class
weighted average performance scores. Therefore, the usage of intuition or
personal feeling without genuine facts in decision making by education
managers in African schools should be re-examined to enhance procedural
improvement and qualitative teaching delivery. Why? Because Education
Intelligence technique provides a framework for diagnosing sources of
educational problems and also help teachers or tutor to monitor personal
progress achievement made in the teaching of specific subjects over a short,
medium and long term carrier period.
It is noteworthy at this point to acknowledge that the investment made
by government & private school owners towards classroom building project to
enhance better learning environment and upgrade of the welfare of students
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serve as a positive support for school development. However, the geometric
growth in the population of students attending public and private schools is a
consequence of increased funding, and partly the positive attitude of parents
quest for quality education and knowledge acquisition for their children.
Therefore, of what value is the search for knowledge if what is thought in
schools fails to query and re-engineer the human minds to think about process
improvement or production?
Problem of Unsustainable schooling
Without continuous investment in dynamic research & development, Africans
as a people, a continent, educational learners and trainers, businessmen,
politicians, farmers, financial actors, families and even individuals, will remain
in conflict and crisis. This is why the holy bible record through the book of
proverb 4 verse 13, Always remember what you have learnt. Your education is
your life guard it well.
The crux of the sub-Saharan Africa educational system problem is therefore
enveloped in this question: How can students remember what they have being
taught in school when the teachers input & methods as a function of
performance output of student are left unanalyzed? Perhaps, the school
management & teachers are complacent with what they learnt in the past and
the contents of what is been shared today, as evolutional knowledge to the
students are rusty and out of date. Consequently, how can we explain the
situation that parents now find it very difficult to discipline their children on
the excessive usage of social networks & TV media program which share vital
strata of students brain, causes divided mind attention & lesser time
availability for study? Therefore, for nations, parents, educationist and
students to gain direct benefit from the investment made in education; the
existing schools & all educational institutions need to measure the value of the
human capital through experimentation and lessons drawn from education
intelligence techniques.
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Essentially, over reliance on physical classroom blocks as indicators of
infrastructural development without integration of internal baseline
architecture could account for reasons behind structural unemployment crisis,
as well as the reduction of labour productivity in a nation. Although, basic
physical infrastructural tools and teaching aids, though of paramount
advantages, yet they will always remain behind on the scale of educational
consequentiality because of the need for maintenance and improvement. As
such, it is the lack or poor condition of these basic tools in schools that should
be tagged as symptoms of low educational development and not the root cause
of educational under-performance in itself.
Role of Parents in schooling risk management
In the continuous struggle of parents toward knowledge acquisition for their
children, they must be well informed and reminded of the need for conscious
actions to monitor, control and manage the usage rate of social networks
technology and TV viewing by their children during school season and at
holiday period. This is paramount in order to safeguard the life of children and
young adult, because a wild or polluted mind will find it difficult to concentrate
or allocate significant time for study and likewise, may not remember the
lessons learnt. This is equally likely to yield low level of confidence at
examination and inability to further contribute productively to their community
after schooling.
Role of Government, Regulatory Bodies & other Stakeholders
For nations & government to experience the desired positive reward on its
investment in public schools and institutions, the valuation of the human asset
should undergo the process of robust research and development for legislative
law and new regulatory policies, most especially in the education sector. This
would enable school developers, administrators, managers, teachers & parents
to re-think on what elements should constitute new methodology and
technology for quality improvement in the education system. While a review of
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existing textbook content analysis would also be required under the auspices of
regulatory bodies to enhance the relevancy of learning for productivity and de-
emphasize certificate driven interest of most citizens in the Nigerian economy
and other sub-Saharan African Nations.
The philosophy of three living economy
This philosophy was drawn from the book of insight My child, when you stop
learning, you will soon neglect what you already know. Proverb 19:27
In every activity on earth, the wisdom of the creator is often trampled upon by
human desires, governmental policies & actions plan believed to be relevant for
the survival of humanity and her environment. But what is unknown to the
learned and the learner is that; peoples life is also affected through what
leaders teach or fail to learn. More so, the kind of resources required toward
improving the living standard of people is assumed to be inadequate. Contrary
to this human assumption, the creator gave man the authority to manage the
environment and the risk inherited on earth. This specific issue has been
explained & understood using the insight of the living economy.
Exhibit 1.0: stage 1
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Keys: the Ice stands for Nature of human activities. Bowl = Habitat. Water = Kinds of resources
At about 12:05pm (3 minutes interval or implied as 3 years policy
implementation) from the starting point (exhibit 1.0). The water condition was
tested using human index finger & there was a transition of water from hot to
warm status (economy II) while that of the normal water inside economy I had
slightly become cold. Yet the melting stages of the three freeze economy were
not revealed to the eyes in this short run.
In second stage of observation_0922 which was exactly ten minutes interval or
10 years period from stage one (exhibit 1.1). The ice melting rate had intensify
in economy II where the water condition is neither hot nor cold as compared to
gradual experience of ice melting of economy I where water is now more cold.
Likewise, economy III begins to experience ice melting, yet its drop of resources
were insignificant for human utilization and survival.
Exhibit 1.1: stage 2
Contrary to events and human activities in previous observation and testing
stage, economy II begins to experience drastic & severe ice melting of her
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activities and gradual melting process continued in economy I with severe
coldness of resources utilized for human development. Though, melting
intensifies in economy III, but her cold drops of water was largely supported
through the creator influence (see exhibit 1.2). These accounts have evidences
in stage 3 observation_0924 and 20 minutes interval (long run forecast) from
stage one.
Exhibit 1.2: stage 3
The leaders whom are indirectly teachers in economy II & III have privilege to
visit the habitat of economy I whose leaders have envisage the possibility of this
journey during the era of quest for natural resources which allocation was a
unique plan of the creator in his wisdom. This third stage of economy
development account that todays generation of leaders have different thinking,
desires and policies concerning the purpose of creation, the past transgression
and the lessons for future generations of leaders and followers. Therefore,
observation_0926 which was the fourth stage (13 years with stage three as the
base period) reveals a severe melting of human activities in economy II with
gradual water coldness situation. We also found increased melting rate of
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economy III and low volume of water signals in her habitat (exhibit 1.3). But
economy I still enjoy insignificant melting rate with extreme coldness of
available resources which is largely owned by indigenous citizens who hold on
to her insight with discipline, knowledge of the creator and human utilization
of creative minds.
Exhibit 1.3: state 4
Additionally, the three living economy are sovereign entities which in human
perception are believed to be independent. But in reality, they will always be
inter-dependent, because international trade is inevitable in economy
development and significantly; due to differences in economy factor &
resources allocation and endowment. Human activity or trade has indeed
affected the thinking of leaders and the people of economy II & III whom have
stop learning and probably neglected what they already know or should
experiment through innate gift of human mind designed by the creator.
Evidences in stage 5 below show that economy II should expect continuous
melting rate of her human activity which is likely to be financed through
external borrowing or increased coldness of water (exhibit 1.4). Economy III will
experience continuous melting rate, but with developmental funds (increased
water level) required to boast her human activities. Economy I should expect a
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near static melting rate of activities which is under the influence of huge
leverage (extreme coldness). This observation_0929 is a 13 years period with
birth of another generation of humans whom will require greater discipline
because of their exposure to physical resources (reaction through sight) and
neglect of knowledge (pro-active through insight) in polices and decision
towards human sustenance. The three economies which are led by adult, child
and fetus syndrome are therefore acting in ignorance because they forget that
the creator of the universe (the three habitats) began with wisdom by creating
the light on the first day for transparency even before he created man.
Exhibit 1.4: stage 5
The observation_0931 which x-ray the sixth stage with 7 years period (medium
term forecast) reveals an imbalance events of the three living economy. There is
a high likelihood of diminishing returns to be experienced in the human
activities and resource based approach of economy II (slow melting rate &
coldness decrease) while, economy I should expect diminishing returns in her
human activities but with relative income balance which is a function of
knowledge gained through continuous and internal experimentation or labour
productivity (increased coldness). On the contrary, economy III should expect
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20
crisis in her human activities (increased melting rate) due to misguided
leadership thinking (fetus syndrome or sight driven) but, will still enjoy
significant cold water (developmental funds support) for utilization towards
human survivals. The problem of this sixth stage (exhibit 1.5) is that the safety
of human life and property will be at risk and more importantly, the children
and youth tends to be the most vulnerable because the macroeconomic
activities (the Ice) which plummet during this period thus, spillover to the
family unit which bears the burden of diminishing returns and survival
struggles.
Exhibit 1.5: stage 6
In modern times, the creator of the universe in his wisdom has sent the true
light to the three habitats in order to rescue his people and protect them from
the laws and policies crafted by man. To this end, the true light and teacher
was asked, Which is the greatest commandment in the law? and he
answered, love the creator and love your neighbor as yourself (see Matthew
22: 36-40). Through insight, this was translated as primary and secondary
purpose of creation. These purposes are now being carried out by people in the
three habitats as mutually exclusive mission with the goal of achieving
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21
economic development. Therefore, for the three habitats to attain relative
stability of macroeconomic activities; there is need for political & religious
leaders (irrespective of her adult, child or fetus thinking drives) to redraft
policies and laws to limit the excesses of humans activities which negate the
purpose of creation. This is a prerequisite to reduce the risk of high melting
activity rate in economy II & III, yet with tendencies of resources to plummet
(water is neither cold nor warm) in economy II while, economy III should still
enjoy cold resource(continuous cold water availability) support from neighbors
(habitat I). Economy III requires more support because the people there are
very poor and, they need food for healthy living. Likewise, for economy I to
experience insignificant activity melting rate, her policies & laws must be
restructured towards primary purpose of creation. This is the account of the
seventh stage (exhibit 1.6) in observation_0933 and 25 years expectations.
Finally, when I looked at the three economy, their leadership thinking, nature
of human activities, habitats and the kind of resources utilized between each
stages of economic development; then I asked, what impact have sub Saharan
Africa policies achieved with physical infrastructural resources when the
objective of learning has been forgone?
Exhibit 1.6: stage 7
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22
Lesson learned from the three living economies
For any nation to accomplish her dreams of sustainable human development
for the present and likewise for the future, she must have or produce leaders
who are determine to reshape policies and laws towards having a transparent
form of habitat such as in economy I, yet with greater commitment to serve the
people and his creator rather than serving any kind of resources which is the
likelihood practices of opaque habitats in economy II & III. This lesson is
required because, leadership by example is a virtue that could increase peoples
understanding of macroeconomic decisions; policy measures are fundamental
knowledge to limit the failure rate of microeconomic policies and actions. The
adult thinking (insight syndrome), child thinking (sight syndrome) and fetus
thinking (sight syndrome) are not in any way peculiar to continuous leadership
approach as could be seen in stage 1 model of the three living economy. But
each syndrome is a means to observe & map the pattern and directions upon
which the policies of every political and religious leaders dispensation are
based. If the leaders reform must draw the attention and initiatives from
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23
various institutions to offer better advice to governments the consequences of
adopting a particular law that pose a severe risk on beliefs, culture and
activities of the people should not be neglected. This is because of hot
resources utilize in economy II which are mostly instances of continuous
extraction of mineral deposits, energy resources couple with budgetary increase
in government expenditure with plans to meet goals of physical infrastructures
and less determined process towards humans productivity to sustain planned
projects. Physical infrastructural resource is therefore a finance driven
infrastructural project with negligence of managerial antecedents as critical
requirement for awarding government contracts. For example, when a hydro-
electric power generation firm whose operations are still at the formative stage,
yet allowed to bid for a multi-billion dollar power plant project because of the
financial capability of the investor & certainty of expected return on
investment; if the firm win the contract on known premise then the managerial
competence should not be hidden before signing of Memorandum of
understanding. A leader that utilizes more of sight than insight is fraternizing
with management inept. This ineptitude is a flame that often spread during
project implementation to the whole pyramid structure of the government the
firm & investor and finally, to the host communities whom are beneficiary &
most vulnerable if the project fails. Likewise, due to the hotness of the policies
made by leaders in economy II, they become national prey to contactors with
secret information and victim of other habitats led through insight. The context
of dry resources includes unidentified natural resource and desert habitual
lands which serves as critical constraint to human livelihood. Cold resources
are means directed using artificial intelligence as subsets of control to natural
human activities optimization, technology advancement and sustenance of
productivity in human race. The instances of observed melting rate at various
stages are also sign of social conflict ahead. These conflicts have been a by-
product of the excesses that form errors in policies and law formulation. For
example, the sub-Saharan Africa leaders should be careful with using sight
tailored laws such as the immunities awarded to serving political and public
office holders. This no doubt is a barrier to transparency, effective governance
system and a virus affecting fellowship thinking. Taking Nigeria decentralized
democratic system as case scenario where the federal, state and local
government leaders have more policies focus on infrastructural development
goals, as against processes (learning stages) towards development drives; these
leadership decisions could be rated as sight driven and resource based (budget
focus) which uncontrolled implementation leads to continuous neglect of
domestic human activities, the environment and an impaired human standard
of living of her citizens. In other words, every nation in this global world should
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24
continuously strive for human development through more insightful thinking
as a means of productivity and conscious learning of actions and decisions that
will be instrumental to todays humans livelihood and a stepping stone for next
generation development. This philosophy is therefore a search light to identify
spots of leaky foundation in macroeconomic decisions and issues of conscious
learning for leaders or teachers of human races at all levels. Not forgetting the
significant forces of the sun, air, animals and other living things that were
provided by the creator as benefits to human existences and survival of the
three living economy.
Sensitivity to lack of knowledge
In November 1961 after Nigeria had received her freedom from the colonial
masters (Britain), the minister for economic development, Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim
called on the government to demarcate zone of activity for foreign and domestic
entrepreneurs. He argued that foreign firms should go into industry and that
the simple wholesale and retail trade. should be left to our people. (Sonni
Gwanle Tyoden 1989) This was the issue of political economy and foreign policy
measure of the founding leaders of Nigeria. His intension was to encourage
indigenous participation in economic development. But his vision is likely to
have placed limits on the quest for technical knowledge and domestic
competency of her people. The issue is that government & institutional budgets
tend to be focused on foreign capacity while indigenous human capital
development tends to be neglected, sometimes designed and programmed to
execute only purchase decisions. The generation of leaders and her labour
force available within this period (generation X) and the next (early 1980
2000) could have been seriously affected through this policy focus which had
impaired the domestic learning process due to ignorance of a Make or Buy
decision (The concept of cost & management accounting). The lesson learned in
this 21st century is, that African leaders and Nigeria in particular should strive
and focus more policies and actions towards a make decisions whose tactics
requires internal experimentation through scientific management methodology
to improve her human capabilities as foundation of sustainable development.
Similarly, at institutional level in the sub-Saharan Africa region, the public &
private universities or higher institutions of learning have been planned to
drive human & technological development towards achieving knowledge based
economy. Through observation, the investments (time and efforts) directed
towards research & development (R&D) by human capital from lecturers &
students in Nigeria tertiary institution is relatively low. This is probably
because management of existing universities, poly-technics, mono-technics
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25
and colleges of education are often likely to blame the leaders for inadequate
funding of research work. The incidences of such blames are new knowledge
drought for human development (insufficient productive thinking towards R&D)
or crowded instances of traditional knowledge (reproductive thinking &
recycling of known literatures without new discoveries). These events are most
likely to occur as psychological risk to human development. The lesson learned
is, that universities as a center of learning & knowledge is never complete
without affiliation to Research & Development centers as unique entity of
sustainable development of every nation.
2001, in a public secondary school situated in Lokoja, the state capital of Kogi
(North-Central Nigeria), about 140 student group sat for the May/June West
Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), an external exams
in preparatory towards qualification for admission into Nigerian tertiary
institution of learning. It was observed and found that 16.4% representing 23
students had credits (grades of C or higher) in five subjects or more, from the
nine subjects seated for per candidate, while 67.14% representing 94
candidates had fewer than five credits in the nine subjects and, more with two
credits in nine subjects. The remaining 23 candidates or 16.4% had failed (F9
grades) the entire nine subjects seated for in the exams. In comparison with
the benchmarks requirement for admission into Nigerian universities, a
minimum of five credits in five subjects including mathematics and English
language is required for applicants to attain eligibility. This standard was
designed with options to combine credits of result in, at most, two seating for
candidates. The judgment from the perception of the management of this
public secondary school, on receiving this horrible performance report released
by WASSCE council, decide to brief other students who were yet to graduate.
At the assembly ground in the morning of the next day, the vice principal
administration made the announcement and then took an intuitive decision by
declaring prayers & fasting to be observed till the hours of noon. The
management, staff and student were told to pray for the new final year
students preparing for the next WASSCE and the entire school students in
order to prevent or avert the reoccurrence of such poor performance of student
in the future. Though, this decision was very important. The lesson learned
was, the vice principal academics ought to have acted further by seeking for
help from a data analyst to conduct specific investigation of teachers input and
methodology using intelligence tools to measure performance of students in
various subjects for junior and senior class level. This would enhance the
insight and actions taking by school management to control the risk of psychic
effect on the existing students due to negative information that increases the
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26
fear of failure. This sensitivity could be likened to interpretation of the Holy
book from James Chapter 2 Verse 26 so then, as the body without the spirit is
dead, also faith without actions is dead.
In 2012, there was a placement for job adverts by Dangote Group Nigeria. The
vacant positions were for graduate top drivers, with 100 positions for truck
drivers. Through a public information from the media and based on the report
giving by the company, it was revealed that applications were received from
thirteen thousand (13,000) job applicants (Graduates) from Nigeria. On
analytical report, the chairman of the company confirmed the statistic captured
by the database of Dangote group. He further stated that six (6) PhD holders,
704 masters degree holders, 8,460 B.Sc. degree holders and over 3,000
persons with lower certificates applied for the 100 positions. Though, the
chairman promised to assist applicants with PhD qualification with higher
positions in the company, the lesson learned is: Nigerian educational system is
far losing its value of knowledge impartation in areas of specific skills,
entrepreneurship and problem-solving initiative for undergraduate and post-
graduate programs. Meanwhile, because of the un-measurable and high rate of
unemployment of the youths in Nigeria, the standard of living of this future
leaders will continuously deteriorate and spillover in poverty at the individual
and family unit of human development.
Research methodology
The study have been structured to measure quality assurance in education, 6knowledge deficiency risk and events within the scope of investigating the effects of unsustainable schooling system which had placed limit to problem-solving initiatives and creativity of children & youth, thereby causing
psychological risk on human development within sub-Saharan Africa region. The methodology of this study was therefore drawn from definition of
sustainable human development Development that meets needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Report, WCED, 1987, p.43).
6 Knowledge deficiency risk is a psychological risk which deals with low or high
impaired understanding in subject learned by students, owing to known lapses in
teaching methodology utilized by the tutor.
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27
Design and Sampling procedures: The researcher employed an experimental design which commence in August 2011 with pre-test data gathering of
continuous assessment and examination score of students in chemistry subject with class size of twenty seven (27) students in senior secondary level II
(SS2) group from a private school in Umuahia North of Abia state, Nigeria (see appendix A, Model E). A Pairwise comparison of analyzed output with the manual output of the teacher was conducted, to measure processing error at
cycle time, grading and performance assessment. The pre-test stage was the seed towards the system requirements analysis through informal meetings with school examination officers. After series of continuous iteration &
developments, a formal request for access to raw data of student scores was addressed to the principal of Bishop Delisele College Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria
on 10th January, 2013. Bishop Delisele College is a public secondary school that had academic operations since 1979 and is situated in a small city which happens to be the first capital city of Northern Nigeria during Lord Lugard
colonial administration in ancient history. Approval was granted to sample manual summary scores of student academic records and, we extracted actual
data availability for eleven subjects out of thirteen subjects plan for student intake at foundation level. The data entry phase was a pilot study of 160 student records in junior secondary level I (JSSI) during 2010/2011 third term
academic sessions. Additional data captured includes records in 2011/2012 academic session for 225 students in junior level II (JSS2), as this was a 40.63% increase of school enrollment to junior level II. Only five (5) subjects
were sampled at the junior level II class group. The intention was to measure the stability of student performances and improvement in teaching methods for
first, second and third term session. Data record of 149 students in senior secondary level I (SS1) for third term 2011/2012 was captured as part of the scope of the case study. There was a contraction in student enrollment data of
106 sampling in second term 2011/2012 academic session for senior level II (SS2) students in Bishop Delisele College and a significant reduction in class size of 59 students in final year students (SS3) for 2012/2013 first term
academic session. The research was extended to data collection of Human Development Index statistic of life expectancy at birth, education and income
indices sourced from United Nations Development Programme Report (2003-2011) though, with a missing data in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Development process and Techniques: The structure database program
design and development were conducted using relation algebra, set theorem and visual analytical feedback model. The focus of the sub-program design was
an online analytical processing (OLAP) database type which helps to consolidate the scores for use in planning, speeding up the query procedures for information reporting and decision support. Structured query language
(SQL) form the basis of algorithm used to pool unique dataset of scores in all subjects studied by the class group in JSS1, using practical application of
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28
Cartesian product for mathematical optimization. The education intelligence models capture the performance distribution chart, performance weight,
student count; class averages scores and pairwise data comparison on term basis per school session. The junior class average performance per subjects
was computed & produced using query procedures from the sub-program database. The internal baseline architectures or models have been customized as templates for schools utilization by leveraging Microsoft technology. Data
were copied into predictive analytic software (PASW) for additional descriptive analysis, while open source statistical R software was further applied in conducting numerical taxonomy of human development value of sub-Saharan
Africa proxy by Nigerian economy from 2003-2011 with intention to detect the economic policy periods with similar patterns, unique index and needs for
disaster recovery. Both hierarchical agglomerative procedures focused on wards method and k-means clustering were used to verify stability of proposed recommendations for sustainable policy measures towards human
development.
Models and Risk Management
With reference to the four basic assumptions of proposed education intelligence framework contained in the literature review, it is expected that sub-Saharan
Africa educational regulators including United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will reappraise the existing parameter of
students performance metrics. For example, the Nigeria schooling system utilizes a classification metric for: failed student (scoring 0-39 marks), student with a pass mark (40-49 score) and credit mark (score of 50 or above). We
believe that while this metric is adequate in the 20th century characterized with lesser social distraction in the environment that Africans lived in, the same
metric should be used in the short run (3 years period from now) as student perception of performance. Contemporary living have more exposures of 21st century students to greater social distractions like social networks and sexual
related program contents from satellites stations, internet & TV which now share an unknown proportion of student brain and minds; we therefore pose a query: Do we need to set higher benchmark of performance tolerance level for
tutor and teachers to improve quality of education? If the proposition is tenable, regulator should therefore set higher performance limits where scores
of 0-39 & 40-49 marks are pegged as higher risk of knowledge deficiency with lower understanding level of students. While score of 50 & above should be rated as low risk of knowledge deficiency with higher understanding level of
students in subject matter. This argument is further explained using internal baseline architecture of model A below.
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29
The evidences from model A, reveals a significant difference between the
clusters of subjects group within the undesirable region of performance (
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30
The researcher made further investigation into issues of quality assurance in
education and it was found that more than half of the 160 students of the case
study have indeed failed at this foundation stage in junior secondary schooling
process. The students failure rate on overall average point basis was 52.5%
persons in 2010/2011 academic session. The evidence is contained in Model B
of internal baseline architecture for school risk management.
In Model B, we found a clear representation of the risk events that should be
managed by school management aligned with expected decisions that must be
authorized by senior academic principals of the school to meet international
best practices of transparency and accountability of school governance system.
An approval document will be required to verify decisions and delegation of
powers from top management to the respective class teachers whom are likely
to take a contrary measures beyond decision to retain these 84 students as
repeaters, to test further the 26 students as probation or trial in next class and
finally to transfer these 50 students as eligible of being promoted to higher
class level.
Furthermore, it is also important to correct the traditional orientation
and perception of most parents thinking that when a student has been
awarded a promotion to next class, then such student is certified ok. This
nature of thought lacks adequate proof because of specific investigations that,
out of the 50 students with promotion awards; 11 of them failed English
subject, 11 also failed lesson in physical education, 9 failed Agricultural
science and only 4 of these promoted group failed Christian religious
knowledge. The specific probing was done using unique identification number
0
20
40
60
80
100
39 49 100
Repeater Probation Promoted
84
26
50
Stu
de
nt
fre
qu
en
cy in
Cla
ss g
rou
p
Risk Event to be managed
Model B: 2010/2011 Schooling risk event by student frequency for Junior secondary level 1
Repeater 39
Probation 49
Promoted 100
ReT
ain
th
ese
stu
den
ts
Try
th
e st
ud
ents
Tra
nsf
er
thes
e
stu
den
ts Remark:
Avg point '0-39 = failed Avg point '39-49= low pass Avg point '49-100= passed
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31
of the students from the sub-program database to check the efficiency and
reliability of planned decisions.
Looking at the severity of students failure rate from the dashboard
representation in Model B, the researcher expected a combined total of 76
students (26 +50) to have being allowed entry into junior level II (JSS2) classes
as returning students. In contrast, a total of 205 students record was found in
the summary booklet of JSS2 in 2011/2012 first term academic session.
Impliedly, about 129 new students (205-76) were admitted into JSS2 for
2011/2012 school session. This number of enrollment was perceived by the
investigator as outrageous within closed intervals. As such, a problem was
detected and the likelihood of the school management to have Rock the Boat.
The identified problem: Academic fraud or risk event was found to have
occurred, as large frequency of expected student repeaters of JSS1 were being
promoted to the next stage of schooling process without fulfilling entry
requirement into JSS2 class.
Issues: It was also found that there were biases in the computation processes
of the promotion records. The data summary shows student score for third
term performance only. This data ought to have been an average score of first,
second and third term aggregate for 2010/2011 respectively. The average score
would have revealed a chronic disaster in the student performance records.
Secondly, the school system had divided JSS1 into stream A, Stream B and
Stream C class groups for easy identification. On a deeper investigation using
student_id for analysis, Stream A had 31 students classified as failed group, 6
students classified as probation group and 17 students entered the promoted
group. Contrary to this finding, the class teacher of Stream A had prepared
report with records in the school summary booklet showing forty nine (49)
students promoted to next class level II and five (5) students been advised to
be withdrawn from school. This was the class teacher decision in stream A
Junior Level I which comprised student_id of BDC001-BDC054. This event is a
clear evidence of academic fraud in educational system. This is a fraud
because only 23 students (17 + 6) of the 49 awarded promotions by the teacher
had eligibility for transfer and trail in the next class stage. While the remaining
26 students (31 5) with non-eligibility status whom were also promoted
illegally, ought to have been retained in level I as repeaters. The class teacher
of these 54 students foundation level did act irresponsibly with decision taking
against educational rules & policies both locally and against international best
practice. Consequently, this judgments should not be over-ruled because this
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32
fraud was equally likely to have been committed by class teachers of stream B
& stream C level I respectively. Through the evidences of schooling risk event
found in model B where eighty four (84) student frequency was expected as
repeaters in 2010/2011 academic session, this statistic is about 13/4 times
above the failure frequency (84-31 =53) of students in stream A class group.
This implies that left over failure frequency of student were distributed or
spread for vulnerability of students in stream B & C, comprising BDC055-
BDC105 & BDC106-BDC160 identification numbers respectively.
The likely causes of this schooling risk and academic fraud includes, but
not limited to these:
Fear of whistle blowing by the class teachers due to significant proportion (52.5%) or severity of student failure at foundation level.
Abnormal pressures from parents to teachers concerning issues of student promotion metrics
Monetary inducement of some teachers by parents whose goals for their children is centered on promotion based on whatever it take attitude,
rather than learning process of schooling.
The traditional perception of a teacher that high failure rate is attributed
to lack of seriousness or commitment to study by students; this make teacher to be less concern on effects of their decisions in the long run.
Insensitivity of school administrators concerning value of information
required to be sourced from student assessment reports.
The negligences of school management over severity of risk in performances evaluation, for a teacher per students group.
Inadequate monitoring and evaluation tools used by external regulatory
personnels from local & international educational institutions saddle with responsibility to set control standards for quality assurance in
teachers methodology.
Effects of risk event and vulnerability of students.
The Students psychology is negatively affected. The learning processes & relative skills acquired by student are
inadequate to solve community problems. Teachers tend to develop a perception that failure in school is normal,
and their quest for new knowledge, plummet. Affected Student of today that becomes tomorrow teachers, tends to
spread risk to next generation
The fear of failing is likely to increase in the mind of the students
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33
Meanwhile, if we have to go back to the education intelligence assumption, the
first was that productive thinking approaches adapted by a classroom teacher
will determine the degree of interest formed in the human mind on a specific
subject matter. And the second in relation to the former: Without positive
formation of interest, no knowledge can be gained and acquired by students.
Therefore, we can proffer relative answers to research question on how
students can remember what they have being taught in school by analyzing the
teacher input & methods as a function of performance output of students
within specific timeframe. This requirement is explained in Model C below.
It obvious from the component model C, that the degree of interest formed in
the mind of students in level II is relatively weak around knowledge area of
integrated science and mathematics. There was an improvement in students
knowledge area of English language (class_Avg= 56.43) in first term. The
English teacher reproductive thinking approach lead students towards a
decline in performance ( = 38.72) in second term, while student performance
in third term remain within the knowledge deficiency at high risk ( = 42.48 <
50) of non-conformance to expected benchmarks of quality assurance in
education for children and youth in the 21st century. Similarly, if we recall the
56.43 47.99 43.51 39.68
24.62
38.72
24.73
49.69 52.14
40.08 42.48 48.46
44.39 40.87 40.75
M
a
r
k
s
Model C: 2011/2012 Sampling of subjects marks for stability evaluation in Class level II per session
Class_Avg_2ndterm
Class_Avg_Istterm
Class_Avg_3rdterm
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34
evidence in Model A where student knowledge area in social study at junior
level I was = 68.08, this statistic have also decline significantly in level II ( =
39.68) due to illegal decision where expected repeaters in JSS1 were
transferred to JSS2 without meeting expected entry requirements (instances of
non-conformance to requirement (Crosby theory). On an overall knowledge area
appraisal in level II per session, the teachers/students performance
assessment were relative weak in first term, erratic in second term and relative
stability with high risk ( < 50) of knowledge deficiency in third term if
observation & measurement is done using horizontal gridlines in the Model C
above. Thus, the researcher expect an improvement in decision making
towards quality assurance in education, if this internal baseline architecture
can be leveraged by educationist in order to control the problem of false
negative error of teachers recruitment process. A human resource issue has
occurred where a teacher with long years of teaching experience and adequate
certificate qualification is later found of incapable to deliver quality services to
students in the class room.
Just like the figure of speech in book of Mathew 12 verse 33: to have
good fruit you must have a healthy tree; if you have a poor tree, you will have a
bad fruit. In like terms, to control the risk and likelihood of existing
educational system from functioning as negative agent of socialization, the
management of schools, teachers and regulators need to re-think on new
paradigm to drive quality in education. This will be required because, if todays
children and youth in the sub-Saharan Africa region are left with continuous
exposures to education without knowledge gain, then the future value of these
human capacity to their economy would be transform as human liability, as
against being an 7human asset of development.
Our arguments continue further through explanation of the fourth assumption
leading to education intelligence framework: Understanding of lessons learnt by students is a factor which triggers higher performances as metric of qualitative
delivery of a teacher. The assumption will help to demystify issues with class size differences as contained in the internal baseline architecture Model D.
7Human asset: is the stock of competencies, knowledge, social and personality
attributes, including creativity, embodied in the ability to perform labour so as to produce economic value. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
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35
In conformance to quality, we expected a normal distribution (bell shape). In
contrast, we found a skewed performance distribution. The issue is, that
English teachers should not claim a mean difference of 3.84 ( = 42.48 - 38.64)
is attributed to class size difference 40 (n = 200 160) in level II 2011/2012
session. A teacher that have similar output experience should note that, the
weighted bar in performance proportion is the unique parameter of knowledge
area transition and not the class size gap. As such, the high failure rate in
English subject which is about 54% (mark of 0-39) of JSS1 student in
2010/2011 is compared to failure rate transition of 48% for JS2 students in
2011/2012 academic performance. These teaching challenges could be
propelled by unconscious learning of the English teacher leading to impaired
understanding of students. Likewise, the small changes in mean score
difference is now been clustered around student marks between 49-69 score,
though at a low performance proportion of about 10% above the weighted bar
observation. The researcher therefore, advised that irrespective of knowledge
area, teachers with large & positive skewed distribution in the performance of
students should be required to undergo further training using improved
methodology to enhance teachers consciousness in learning to achieve
increased understanding of lessons learnt by students for knowledge to be
stored in their mind. We also hope that model D will serve as decision support
to measure the impact of training and retraining of teachers in the 21st century
schooling system.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Mark Limits
Model D: Visual feedback & performance transition model for Junior secondary students in English subjet per Class size
performance proportion_left scale
Student Count_JS1_ = 38.64_N = 160_right scale_2010/2011
student count_JS2_ = 42.48_N = 200_right scale_2011/2012
Conscious learning
increased understanding 50
Unconscious learning impaired understanding
< 50
High
Low
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36
Empirical Results and Discussions
Barely less than two years to the completion of the Millennium developments
goals which world leaders envision would cut the incidence of poverty by half in
2015, and we still experience low quality assurance in education within the
sub-Saharan Africa region. There are dilemmas in the mind of children and
youth concerning the value of education and knowledge area that is of
relevance to individual career in life. There are high risk of knowledge
deficiency in the mind of present generation of children & youth, even in this
21st century. Education without knowledge gain is a syndrome that might have
affected large proportion of generation X teachers, including people born
between 1980 and the end of 20th century within the African region. Due to
lack of knowledge and excessive concentration to income indices as single
component of human development before 1990, humans have therefore
suffered long setbacks and negligence, this has manifested in the havoc done
to the human mind. Most African decision makers have also placed
concentration on physical infrastructure to meet the millennium goals but they
may have as well neglected quality requirements needed for these projects to
positively affect human standards of living. This negligence of quality in
project, education and human health may give rise to issue of rework in
existing public projects, public & private education structures and health
restructuring. Regardless of these rework, the main issue in relation to
educational quality is largely due to poor control mechanisms and over-reliance
on market forces decisions. We found that so many institutions including
international educational regulatory commissions and even the employers of
labour have wide acceptance that quality assurance in education is important,
but quite a few number of these social group are determine to make explicit
input to achieve the task. While many non-governmental organizations believe
that a state of emergency should be declared by government for education sub-
sector, taking the case of Nigeria; quality assurance requirements in education
is a little daunting. Though, the challenge is not peculiar to sub-Saharan Africa
society alone, it cut across all nations of the world. We therefore hold the
notion that investment in terms of human efforts & time should be added up
into financial needs equation to achieve the desired quality.
It is paramount to remind Worlds leaders that great leadership produces
great teacher. As such, broad-based policies and budgetary provisions should
be restructured to monitor existing educational curriculum contents, teachers
methodologies, framework and the learning philosophy through which
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knowledge is been planned and shared to children and youth towards
correcting young mind and talents needed (see Model A.1) for future problem-
solving and sustainable development.
The education of children and youth in term of gender differences is also very
important, but it is outside the scope of this study. Greater effort and
commitments of leaders, teachers and regulatory institutions will also be
required to control the number of subject intake (Knowledge area) for school
participants. The evidences drawn from Model A.1 already contained support
towards needs for knowledge area prioritization. At the senior secondary
classes, we found that sixteen subjects comprising both science & art
knowledge area was an issue for the human mind at foundation level one
stage. Among the sixteen knowledge area been tested, only two subjects (Home
management & IRK) had a low risk of knowledge deficiency in the mind of the
students measure in 2 class stream. When eight science subjects where tested
for student in senior level II with 2 class stream, three subjects comprising
Physics, Agriculture science & knowledge in geography were better understood
by students. In an art class level III with 2 class stream, where nine subjects
had been tested, the entire nine lessons had lower understanding and found
within high risk of knowledge deficiency in the mind. The significance of these
finding are, that increasing the number of subjects intake for student does not
translate to quality of knowledge contents and methodology impact of teachers
input to student output & understanding. High risk of deficiency in student
knowledge is a factor of education without knowledge gain which has an
important bearing on human development. It is worthy of note at this juncture
to call for rehabilitation of juvenile mind, because the level III class average
performance index of 0.3183, represent an early warning signs of expected poor
performance in this year may/June 2013 West African certificate examination
(WACE) which the level III group are already in preparatory towards seating for
the external exams as requirement for qualification to entry into Nigeria
university & other higher institution of learning.
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If the government become aware on how we manipulate data and figures, just to generate
student transcripts and continuous assessment scores, which we often sent on annual basis to
West Africa examination council. They would have sanctioned our management or even close
down some school out-rightly.
These are words spoken by a private school examination officer in Abuja
Nigeria. The evidences contained in these report are clear indication of system
failures in educational activities within the sub-Saharan Africa region proxy by
Nigeria public school system which requires quality knowledge improvement &
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new standard of teacher activity monitoring and evaluations. These arguments
validate goal-setting theory of motivation: Specific & clear goals along with
feedback quality increases task performance. While the acceptability of
challenging goals lead to higher performance than easy, general & vague goals
(Edwin Locke, 1960).
Reviewing educational decisions and requirements is fundamental in the 21st
century towards quality attainment in learning for every nation irrespective of
development classification. Curriculum redesign tailored towards domestic
economic and strategic thinking can help to motivate educationist to seek new
knowledge rather than conserving knowledge. Although, the proposed
framework intention is not to abolish existing curriculum structures but to
broaden horizon and productivity of teachers within the scope of environmental
and social change that induce the demand for educational re-think. As a
reminder, of what value is the search for k