One of the important lessons that
students of history, politics and society learn is that Ancient Egypt was the
origin of human civilisation. Dating back to around 3000 B.C., more than 30
centuries ago, the first organised society with government and leadership
evolved. Located in the Nile Valley on the North East of Africa, it covered
Upper Egypt, spreading Northwards to Mediterranean, occupying the Syrian coast,
Southwards to present day Sudan, up to the Red Sea in the East and along the
Nile Valley past Nubia in the South, and spreading west inland into the Libyan
Desert.
Being the first human civilisation, it
has attracted a lot of scholarly attention, investigation and enquiry,
especially with respect to factors that made the people to respond with such
organising initiative. Some scholars were very passionate about issues that
bordered on identity of the people, mainly based on racial notion of Ancient
Egyptians being blacks. Leading historian, anthropologist, physicist and
politician, Prof. Cheikh Anta Diop (1923 – 1986) was a proponent of the black
racial identity of Ancient Egyptians. Some of the explanations proffered
include factors of cultural influences linked to racial hierarchy.
Many scholars have contested such
interpretation of the developments and accounts of the Ancient Egypt. In
contrast to racial notion, theses and propositions highlighting factors of
constant flood from the Nile River were presented as critical factors that
necessitated some responses by the people of Ancient Egypt. These responses
shaped and enhanced the capacity of the people of Ancient Egypt to control and
direct processes in their environment resulting in the emergence of the first
human civilisation.
The responses mainly helped in tackling
effectively problems of flood through regulating the flow of water along the
banks of Nile Valley. The main tool that stimulated such landmark development
that is today the most important heritage from the Ancient Egyptian
civilisation include the invention of hieroglyphics (written words) which
greatly facilitated the emergence of administration as well as innovations in
the areas of quarrying, survey, mathematics, architecture, irrigation,
agricultural production methods and ship building.
With these, Ancient Egyptians controlled
the Nile Valley flood and in the process, created dams and canals. Work on the
first canal joining Nile River with the Red Sea was said to have started in the
2nd Millennium BC
under the legendary Sesostris between 1897 BC – 1839 BC. Knowledge of mathematics
was deployed to construct pyramids and temples. They (Ancient Egyptians) also
recorded tremendous progress in the areas of medicine and the art of governance
resulting in the emergence of a ruler – Pharoah – who was regarded as
representative of gods on earth.
The Pharoah was in charge of the army
and governed the entire territory with officials and scribes organised in what
is regarded as the world’s first civil service. Divided into about 42 regions
(nomes) with nomarch, Pharoahs had ministers and courtiers (Vizier). The
economy was mainly agricultural and the people predominantly peasant farmers.
Fertile land on the Nile Valley enabled production of large surpluses that
sustained the exotic lifestyles of the Pharoah. The peasants are also the source
of mass labour that was employed to build the pyramids and temples along the
Nile Valley.
This is the origin of modern governance.
In fact, it can be argued that the most important legacies of Ancient Egyptian
civilisation were knowledge of hieroglyphics, which resulted in development of
mathematics and science, the emergence of structure of government
administration with a ruler who is responsible for directing affairs, and
monuments that are more represented by the Egyptian Pyramids.
Virtually modelled around the structure
and orientation of Ancient Egypt, all modern nation states are organised with
rulers, army under the command of the ruler, administrative structure (civil
service) and regions (or states). Like in Ancient Egypt, in all modern nation
states, the people are the source of mass labour. Similar to the situation
where mass labour was employed in the construction of pyramids, temples and
canals in Ancient Egypt, modern nation states recruit mass labour for all
manner of constructions ranging from road, railways, building structures
serving as schools, hospitals, offices, residences, factories, etc.
The logic is that governance is defined
by initiatives based on the interests of the rulers. This means that the art of
governance is about leading societies to take proper control of their
environment to the advantage of humankind. The machinary of government should
be embodiment of knowledge strategically employed to primarily eliminate all
threats to human advancement. With good heritage of hieroglyphics and the
emergence of institutions of learning therefore, unlike perhaps in the case of
Ancient Egypt whereby learning is at best spontaneous based on the need to
respond to challenges that were in most cases unknown to humankind, modern
nation states have acquired a system of learning through schools that enabled
proper orientation and development of skillful citizenry. With that also modern
nation states can be argued to have by far more productive citizenry.
In some ways, given that these legacies
have also produced what can be regarded as resource threshold, whereby through
development in commerce and modern financial superstructure, nations are
associated with minimum value often referred to as gross national product,
gross domestic product or purchasing power parity. They all represent different
measures of economic activities, which aggregate values of production and
transaction in the geographical territory that define the nation state.
Therefore the critical underlying
factors are production and transaction. The responsibility of government since
the emergence of modern states has been to regulate processes of production and
transaction. Leaders (properly put rulers) are expected to come with clear
vision on how to direct society towards growth and human advancement, just like
the Pharoahs in Ancient Egypt have directed their societies to produce
hieroglyphics, quarrying, survey, mathematics, architecture, etc. resulting in
development in irrigation, agricultural production methods, ship building,
construction of dams, canals, pyramids and temples.
Partly on account of the aspiration to
shape and orient citizens to become more productive, a critical function of all
modern states is educational delivery. Accordingly, governments associated with
good records of human progress are also reputed with functional and efficient
public educational services. United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France,
China, the Scandinavian countries, etc. all have efficient public education. In
the case of most African countries, public education has been on the decline since
the mid 1980s with the introduction of IMF/World Bank promoted structural
adjustment programme (SAP).
Systematic and continues decline over
the years has left public education in African countries unable to meet the
task of developing productive citizens. In some ways, this has undermined and
constrained the capacity of African states to mobilise resources for
development, thereby increasing the propensity to be poor and further pulling
African people into poverty. This situation has produced an unfortunate
symmetry between poor state of public education and levels of poverty. It has
also produced a reality whereby public education is underfunded, unstable and
unpredictable. Capital and recurrent funding to education in the last 3 decades
is far below UNESCO recommended 26% of national budget and total enrolment is
scandalously low.
With the possible exception of South
Africa, this is the situation across all Africa. In the case of Nigeria with
geometric rise in government revenue mainly from crude oil, the situation is
the same – weak capacity to discharge responsibility towards developing the
ability of governments at all levels to meet the task of creating productive
citizens. By the accounts of
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria has earned N8.875 trillion between 2002
and 2006. This has shot to N8.878 trillion for 2011 alone and in 2012, N8.117
trillion. GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost trebled from $170
billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012. Similarly, GDP per capita doubled from
$1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012.
Total expenditures on education by all
Nigerian governments combined are estimated at about 3.5 percent of GDP and
15.2 percent of total government expenditure. There is also the fact that it is
one thing to make budgetary allocations, but another matter entirely on what
actually gets expended in the education sector.
The
consequence is that the art of governance has become antithetical to knowledge.
Citizens even when trained and educated remained ignorant or overtime end up
experiencing brain atrophy mainly as a result of inability to use or apply
knowledge. With such unfortunate scenario, rather than direct society towards
controlling the environment, the environment instead conquers citizens. Thus,
it can be argued that in so many respects government has become partly the
problem of our contemporary world with rulers crazily accelerating modern
societies to disasters of increasing magnitude.
This
is unfortunately the story of Nigeria. With estimated 170 million population,
combination of collapse of public education since the 1990s, poor funding,
corruption and mismanagement are increasingly taking Nigeria away from civilization.
Current state of education in the country is, to say the least, appalling. The
situation has brought about a sad reality whereby people with means end up
sending their children to schools in other countries, including relatively
poorer nations than Nigeria. People with means include public servants whose main
source of income is public funds that should have ordinarily been used to
develop the educational sector.
The
vehicle that is predominantly employed is projects so much that everything
about governance today is reduced to contracts to execute these projects often
with little or no zero value addition. So called Chief Executives are today’s
Chief valuation officers for projects and virtually all Executive Councils at
all levels of government in the country have replaced the functions of Tenders
Boards. With free money from the Federation Account monthly being distributed
to all tiers of governments, rulers don’t have to bother about anything called
tax which should normally be a function of disposable income of citizens. Oil
resource (revenue) from the Federation Account naturally guarantees resources
to execute so-called projects and through them our rulers are can guarantee
themselves some ‘exotic’ lifestyles.
This
is the sad Nigerian story today. It is a story that is dominant and has become
cancerous producing all manner of crises across the nation. No doubt, there are
some state governments that are genuinely working hard to develop initiatives
that would reverse this trend, re-connect governance with quest for knowledge
aimed at solving problems faced by citizens. In some ways, it would appear that
State of Osun (as they prepare to be called) best represent the category of
states that are genuinely interested in addressing this problem. Why Osun? What
has the state done that is different? Are they not also implementing projects
that may be prone to corrupt enrichment of public officials?
On
Monday, June 3, 2013, the State of Osun launched ‘Opon-Imo’, which is an e-learning project for pupils in the secondary schools. It entails
giving each student in senior secondary schools, Computer Tablet (otherwise
known as Opon Imo) to aid
teaching and learning in all secondary schools across the state. The Opon Imo is a self-study aid, a robust
electronic device with uniform learning content for all secondary school
students.
It
is an Indigenous Computer Programmed Instruction (CPI) with locally produced
content, designed for the Nigerian Secondary education system. Presently, the
project targets 150,000 students in
the SSS 1 – 3 category and their teachers. According to the state government, “the advantages of the Opon Imo are many. One is that it has an
in-built feedback mechanism for monitoring students’ performance. Second, the
tablet frees the student from the physical burden of backpack of books and the
healthcare-costs of ‘bad-backs’. In addition, it makes learning less stressful
because of its handiness. Students can take it anywhere with them and have instant
knowledge and information about their schoolwork.
“The
tablet is preloaded with seventeen (17) subjects offered by students in the
West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). The subjects
have been designed in forms of lesson notes, textbooks, mostly provided by
Publishers and Master Teachers Inputs. A content verifier has also verified
lesson notes on each subject (Masters Teachers Works).
“Besides,
seven extra-curricular subjects such as Sexuality Education, Civic Education,
Yoruba History, Ifa Traditional Religion, Computer Education and
Entrepreneurship Education, and Twelve Thousand Yoruba Proverbs are also
included.
“Also
included are ten years’ past questions and answers provided by the Joint
Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the West African Examinations
Council (WAEC). Consequently, questions and answers in 17 (Seventeen)
ordinary level subjects have been provided. They are English Language,
Mathematics, Agricultural Science, Economics, Principles of Accounts,
Literature in English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Yoruba, Commerce, Further
Mathematics, History, Geography, Government, IRK and CRK.
“Presently,
56 e-textbooks, covering 17 subjects’ areas are preloaded in the Computer
tablet – Opon-imo. In addition, seven extracurricular subjects with relevant
books are preloaded, bringing the e-textbooks to 63. There are also, 51 audio
tutorials embedded in the Opon-imo to further aid students through virtual
study plan.”
What
make the story of Opon Imo very attractive and recommendable are not just the
details of the content but the cost analysis, which was provided by the state
government Apart from the fact that its contents can be customised to meet the
needs of users, it is very affordable base on the following cost analysis:
1. JAMB & WASC past questions for all subjects for a period of
ten years on seventeen subjects at a conservative estimate of N1000 per subject
will give a conservative figure of N2,550,000,000 (N2.55 Billion).
2. Virtual Classroom zone containing 51 audio tutorials estimated at about N5000 per session gives
N38,250,000,000 (N38.25 Billion) for 150,000 students.
3. 63 e-textbooks preloaded at a conservative estimate of N1000 each
comes to N63, 000 x 150, 000 = N9,450,000,000 (N9.45 Billion).
The
state government sums it up with the explanation that were they “to engage in the
physical purchase of hard-copies of textbooks for the 17 subjects taught in our
public schools, hard-copies of 51 audio tutorials, hard-copies of JAMB &
W.A.E.C past questions & answers for all subjects for a period of 10years,
it would (conservatively speaking) cost a whopping sum of N50.25billion.” State
of Osun is providing each students of SSS 1 – 3 Opon Imo free based on initial
rollout of 150,000 to be distributed to students and teachers.
The
question at this point is what is the cost of the 150,000 Opon Imo being
introduced in all public senior secondary schools in State of Osun? Ogbeni Rauf
Aregbesola, the Governor of the state who conceived the whole idea while window
shopping in an electronic store announced during the launching that the total
cost of the project is slightly above N200 million. One of the things that the
Opon Imo project necessitated is the installation of solar panels in schools to
power the devices. It is not very clear whether the cost of installing the
solar panels in schools is included in the slightly above N200 million
expenditure.
At
face value therefore it could be argued that with public investment of slightly
above N200 million, the government of State of Osun under the leadership of
Ogbeni Aregbesola has saved the state N50.25 billion. This is an understatement.
The current estimated budget for supplying text books to schools according the
state Ministry of Education is N8.6 billion. The total number of textbooks may
not be up to 63 covering the 17 subjects contained in Opon Imo and may not be
up to 150,000. For the purpose of analysis, let us even take the estimate of
N8.6 billion as sufficient. At the same time, let us also ignore the arithmetic
multiplication of N63, 000 x 150, 000 = N9,450,000,000 (N9.45 billion) based on
the average rate of N1,000 for each textbook and therefore adopt the value of
N8.6 billion as the correct budgetary value required. This means that with Opon
Imo, the State of Osun is saved N8.6 billion from its current budget.
Apart
from the state government, parents are also saved the burden of buying JAMB
& WASC past questions for all subjects and are supplied seventeen subjects
for ten years. At a conservative estimate of N1000 per subject, it means that,
assuming average 9 subject per child, for WASC, on each child, parents are saved
N180,000. In a similar way, but perhaps lower value, parents are assisted to
make savings on each child sitting for JAMB. Based on the resources in Opon Imo
therefore the total savings parent are assisted to make is N2.55 billion.
By
far, the most excellent innovation of Opon Imo could be argued to be the
presence of Virtual Classroom zone containing 51 audio tutorials estimated at
about N5,000 per session. This is a complete new creation. It means the
creation of new resource. Therefore with Opon Imo as presently designed, the
State of Osun has succeeded in creating a resource that is valued at N38.25
billion. All with small public investment of slightly over N200 million.
To
crown it all, during the launching of Opon Imo, Ogbeni Aregbesola announced
that the state government has made arrangement with the makers of Opon Imo to
setup Opon Imo production plant in State of Osun so that they can also supply
other needy students, schools and states. This means that once successful,
State of Osun will emerge as one of the major ICT hub of the nation.
Opon
Imo no doubt represents a huge leap in educational
delivery. It will come with challenges, which the government must prepare to
address. The challenges would include the fact of Opon Imo coming with
user-friendly features on account of which it can be expanded and amended to
incorporate other contents beyond what is provided. Arising from this, there
will be the problem of migrating our poorly trained teachers to this new
digital environment. It may even result in some industrial disputes especially
with trade unions such as Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT).
To
prepare for this, there is the need to learn from experiences of other similar
initiative. Luckily, neighbouring Ekiti State has been working on e-school
project based on a target of providing 100,000 customised laptops to students.
Like Opon Imo, the Ekiti e-school project is also solar powered and has been
running since 2011. Although young, Ekiti state e-school project definitely has
some experiences in terms of preparing teachers to migrate to e-learning
digital environment as well as managing responses that may be conservative.
The second challenge is the issue of maintenance
and possible loss through theft. In terms of maintenance, management staff of
schools may require some training which should be in-plant (within the schools)
in order to guarantee constant functionality and prevent possible breakdown.
Given poor management culture in this country, there is the need not to take
issues of management for granted. Related to management is the issue of how to
secure the equipment. Hopefully, the devices come with tracking security
features.
There are issues of sustainability. To
what extent should we expect that another government after the current one will
not abandon the project and return to the old mode that only end up destroying
our educational system? This is an area that may require both legislative
action and citizens’ engagement. In terms of citizens’ engagement, it would
appear that, more than any state, again the State of Osun is introducing some
milestone initiatives. It is common sight in all parts of the state to see
young people dressed in brown kaki dress (similar to NYSC uniforms) clearing
roads and streets. These are mostly young graduate school leavers. Therefore
unlike what obtains in virtually all other states, the administration of Ogbeni
Aregbesola has developed an effective programme of mass mobilisation. A
critical challenge would be to systematically focus the programme towards
emerging as a mass employment programme creating value that should translate
into income for all the young citizens.
In many ways, State of Osun can be said
to be succeeding in reviving the governance – knowledge nexus which is the
fundamental heritage of Ancient Egyptian civilisation and what should be the
defining attribute of all governments. It is clearly a conscious effort which
is well reflected in the message from Governor Aregbesola during the launching
when he state that:
The introduction
of Opon-Imo is a precious high point in our comprehensive plan to
totally remake the public school system in Osun. Our first concern after
our inauguration was education. We discovered then, to our chagrin, that only
three per cent of secondary school leavers in the state had the requisite pass
for admission into tertiary institutions. We quickly held a summit of
education stakeholders which looked into the state of education in the
state and made far-reaching recommendations.
In a world tilting inexorably towards ICT, Opon-Imo is a
bold statement of our determination to qualitatively redefine public
education. With Opon-Imo, we are certain to open the doors of good
education to more of our students who would otherwise have been denied that
priceless opportunity. Through education we are rescuing our children from
possible misery. As Victor Hugo famously put it: ‘He who opens a school door, closes a prison’. Through Opon-Imo we are opening more doors to more
students to learn. By educating our youths we are also doing our
society a world of good; for an educated society will most likely be a better
society. This is duly affirmed by Maya Angelou who pointed out
that, ‘When you know better
you do better’.
Clearly, with those words, Governor
Aregbesola demonstrates good understanding of governance – knowledge nexus.
More than anything, knowledge is what distinguishes the human race from all
other creation. Departure from knowledge has produced crisis for Nigeria as
nation. Interestingly, State of Osun is the third least earner from the
Federation Account. While it is earning less, it has about the best comparative
record of human development. Based on NBS surveys, the state is reported with
3.0% unemployment rate and 47.5% poverty incidence when national average is
respectively 23.9% and 69%.
With Opon Imo therefore, the inspiring
message from State of Osun is that our people are our most important resource,
their knowledge, skills and talent will be developed to support them produce
resources and wealth from our natural environment and the state government is
ready and working to introduce innovative programmes achieve result. The only
demand Nigerians need to make on especially Governor Aregbesola is that being a
member and leader of ACN and member of the APC merger committee, we expect APC
to truly and faithfully commit itself to this governance – knowledge nexus.
With that, the Opon Imo innovation will be celebrated nationally and for
generation to come the new Nigerian knowledge society to be produced with the
aid of Opon Imo will be recognised as one whose foundation was laid on June 3,
2013 in the State of Osun under the leadership Ogbeni Aregbesola.
