Former Head of Department, Computer Science and Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Prof. Rotimi Adagunodo, has lamented the excessive use of improvisation in the tertiary institutions.
Improvisation is an educational term which means the use of alternative materials to illustrate a point instead of the actual tool or material if such materials are not readily available.
Adagunodo said that the rate of growth of technological development did not support teaching by improvisation of real material.
According to him, there is a limit to what could be achieved with improvisation.
“The way technology is moving, improvisation cannot take us far; that is the reason our students and lecturers are always sweating; they put in extra efforts. The effort it takes somebody to pass through education in Nigeria will almost be times two or three of efforts taken in other climes to go through.
“In such a developed economy, you get into any library, what you need, you get immediately and what you cannot get immediately, when they hear that they don’t have it, they are not happy, and first thing the next morning, you get a call or a note in your mail box that it is now available for you to use,” he said.
Adagunodo maintained that in other climes, there was little room for improvisation. However, in Nigeria, the dependence on improvisation was alarming as nothing seemed to be functioning and available.
He said, “In abroad, there is very little room for improvisation but here it’s like there is so much room for improvisation. Improvisation should be an alternative not the main thing. Improvisation is good, it brings out some reasoning; we are not ruling it out but we should not depend absolutely on it. Every time in Nigeria, you hear, this is not working, that is not working, improvise, when will anything work? We should try to make our system work.”
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He further called on the government to restructure the educational system in Nigeria and also stabilise it.
“The government should restructure education; let our education have a proper structure.
We need a stable structure for our educational system and it will take the policy government to give us that stability. The entrepreneurship aspect of the policy is not vigorously pursued; suddenly, when an administration changes, they will change the policy again,” he explained.
