The failure of the 6-3-3-4 system has been blamed on
several factors. In Onicha Local Government Area for instance there was this
implementation problem encountered by secondary school heads. There were lack of teachers and more
buildings to accommodate the students and keeping of records. Sufficient
science and technical teachers were not provided.
Generally, there was lack of
adequate resources to implementation at full scale the 6-3-3-4 system of
education, some schools had equipment but not structures. Some had equipment
and workshop but no staff to guide the students. Almost all schools had these
problems after the programme has taken off. Further more, the high rate of
inflation and economic doom in the country made it impossible for the graduate
of vocational and technical school to be on their own. Finally, in Nigeria the
quest for technology through the 6-3-3-4 system of education become a mirage.
The introduction of policies into education also helped to kill the incentives
of 6-3-3-4 system of education. Equally the instability in government helped in
great measure to hinder the realization by the awaited aims and objectives of
this laudable ventures on the empirical studies system the result revealed
thus:-
Aiyepeku (1989) in his study
maintained that lack of adequate planning on the part of our education
contributed in the failure of the system, lack of professional guidance and
counselors in all the secondary schools marred the dream of the system.
Akinilabi and Agbomah (1988) on
their own finding believed that the education system which Nigeria adopted was
first noted in South Korea in 1949. the law gave every citizens the right to
enjoy the opportunity for education according to his/her ability. It emphasized
that all children must receive at least primary education and such education as
may be prescribed by law.
Kari (1985) in his article captioned
“GREAT “ said as would be expected in any novel plans the 6-3-3-4 system of
education is already the beset with teething problem. One complaint that was
received most frequently about the implementation of the policy is lack of
manpower.
By manpower, it means trained
technical teachers who are capable of aspects of the programme. the problems of
inadequate man power was compounded by the fact that majority of the teachers
who were employed to teach under the system were trained under the old system.
It will be recalled, he said that some time that the National President of
Nigeria Union of Teaches (NUT) stated that only three percent of the teachers
in Nigeria had the basic training and skills needed to run the new policy. To
him about 97% of the old system and invariably could not fit adequately into
the system.
One major criticism of the 6-3-3-4
system has to do with the timing of it’s take off across the country. The
argument in this regard has been that the government should have started off
with provision of infrastructure and personnel and fixed a uniform target date
for the various states to take off.
Egwin (1982) sees the policy in his
article as one that lacked the fundamentals. He said that there was nothing
wrong with the programme, but there was everything wrong with the planning and
the imminent execution. He then said, I am looking at the 6-3-3-4 system of
education and believe that unless the right foundation is laid early enough
there is no way of achieving ultimate aim envisioned by the planner.
No doubt, whatever innovation,
policy to be made in the educational system of any nation, the head of school
and teachers are always at the final stage of the implementation.
They are actually the people who
import the new system through teaching and directives. But when the system no
matter how laudable is bedeviled with problem the implementation is always very
difficult.