There is this comical story that never ceases to tease me into a spasm of laughter each time I hear it. It was intended to be a joke (I pray it never happened). If it did, then the rot in our education sector must have insidiously cankered the system long before we woke up to it. Here it goes. Long, long ago in the 80s during the military years, a military administrator (Milad as they were fondly called then) got more than he bargained for when he paid an unscheduled visit to a secondary school very close to Government House.

It was a sunny lunch hour and the Milad decided to pay an impromptu visit to the school. In a matter of minutes, the Milad’s motorcade had made it to the school, siren blaring with a motley of overzealous aides in well-starched khaki outfits swarming all over the school premises. Pronto, the principal of the school summoned his students to welcome their august visitor. The Milad was impressed at the turn of event. He marvelled at the well-manicured lawn, the neatness of the students and the general atmosphere of order that pervaded the ambience. He wondered how the students and their teachers, without exception, turned up spick-and-span even when he did not inform them of his visit. The pleasantly surprised Milad concluded that this must be a school of excellence. He commended both the principal and the students and urged them to keep up with the good work.

And just when the Milad was about to enter his car, he halted instinctively, beckoned to one of the students and asked what he thought was a simple question. ‘Who wrote Things Fall Apart?’ the Milad asked. That supposedly simple question started a series of tragic-comic responses. The student, shocked that the Milad could pick on him, retorted: ‘Sir, it’s not me that wrote it. I didn’t write it… they are telling lies against me’. Amazed at the student’s sporadic but awkward response, the Milad offered to help the young lad by stressing “I mean the book Things Fall Apart, who wrote it?” To this, the student still retorted: ‘It’s not me sir, I didn’t write it’.

At that point, the Milad turned to the principal in lamentation. ‘I have just asked one of your students who wrote Things Fall Apart and he’s claiming ignorance’. To this, the principal retorted: ‘Oh that, Your Excellency, that’s the problem I have with these students…they will never own up to their responsibility…but I can assure you one of them wrote it’. Alarmed at the principal’s show of ignorance, the Milad shook his head in disbelief, entered his car and off the motorcade zoomed. The joke continued with the Milad’s ADC, his wife and priest all claiming ignorance of who wrote the book Things Fall Apart.

This might be a comical narrative but it does exemplify the sorry state of education in Nigeria. If that could happen over three decades ago, it is worse now. The rot may have set in during the military years but it has assumed a monstrous dimension today. An evil has befallen the nation’s education sector and it has undone the high standards the colonial masters left behind. In the 70s and to an extent the 80s, to gain admission into secondary school was a big deal. The national entrance examination was competitive and admission was clearly on merit. It was same for admission into the university. I remember how my old school mate missed studying medicine at the University of Benin because he scored 274 in JAMB exam in a year the school’s cut-off point for medicine was 275 out of 400. In those days, it was almost impossible to find a final year secondary school student who could not write a good essay (or what we called Composition). In those days with very limited option of textbooks in all subjects, it was impossible to gain admission into any university with a JAMB score of 200. But these days, with just 200 points or less out of a maximum of 400 and good cash backing to ‘sort out’ your post-JAMB exam troubles, you could study a course of your choice. To rub in the insult, some private universities now organise their private admission exams beside whatever JAMB is doing. Such schools will admit you to study sensitive courses like medicine, engineering, building technology et al with a JAMB score of just 200.

Parents know it. The candidates know it. They know they can study a course of their choice without swotting for JAMB exam. They know admission into the university is now a matter of cash and carry. The only thing they need to do is to ensure the minimum five credits in relevant subjects from either WAEC or NECO. And this is easy to ‘arrange’ especially with the mushrooming of ‘special centres’, an elegant euphemism for ‘cheating centres’. It is getting worse these days with more and more poorly equipped private and state universities with equally motivated faculties sprouting in every corner. The rot in the education sector is such that it is possible to encounter a secondary school today where the students may never have heard of Things Fall Apart, let alone know its author, where classics from the noble club of African Writers Series (AWS) sound double-Dutch.

A few years back, I was on a panel to interview reporters and line editors for a newspaper. Fresh graduates (Mass Communication and English graduates inclusive) were subjected to a written test. It was hellish going through the scripts. The story is the same in every discipline. We have hurt ourselves. Our future is imperilled by our collective negligence of a key sector like education. I don’t know what magic any leader would perform but President Muhammadu Buhari must not fail to try. This sector needs serious surgery. Things have fallen apart in the education sector and we can no longer be at ease with such decadence.

At 56, we have made progress: built dual carriage roads, built bridges, skyscrapers and several monuments but we have failed to build our values as a people. Our values have been eroded; we have sacrificed merit on the altar of mediocrity; we have elevated quantity over quality education.

If in doubt, look to the National Common Entrance Examination cut off marks for admission into Unity Schools. A good 56 years after Independence, Nigeria has succeeded in degrading her education values such that a candidate from Zamfara, Yobe, Kebbi, Sokoto and Taraba who scores a ridiculous 9 points out of 200 will be offered admission to the same school that a candidate from Abia, Delta or Lagos who scores 130 points will be denied admission on account of quota and Federal Character. This is a clear perversion of value and a ready recipe for the making a stunted nation.

The best way to help an educationally backward part of the country is not to lower the grades for them; the more veritable action would be to encourage them to improve on their grades by lending themselves to hard work and studious exertions. Success doesn’t come cheap.

• First published in Sunday Sun, October 2, 2016