INTRODUCTION

Along with an increase in the number ofinstitutions, the federal universities experiencedtremendous growth in enrollment during the1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Indeed, during that time,enrollment doubled every four to five years.Student enrollment during the decade of the1990s increased more gradually (Table 1), andapproximately doubled over the ten-year period.System-wide, the number of students increasedat an average annual rate of about 12 percent.The government-approved annual enrollmentgrowth rates for the federal universities used bythe NUC as part of the budgeting parameters are2.5 percent for the 1st generation universities, 10percent for the 2nd generation universities and 15percent for the 3rd generation universities(Hartnett, 2000). But it must be realized that boththe Federal government and the Universitiescould not satisfy the aspiration of Nigerians toacquire university education. The JointAdmission and Matriculation Board (JAMB)could not admit a reasonable percentage ofNigerian qualified prospective candidates to theuniversities due to the limited space and academicfacilities. In other to satisfy the aspiration of thesestudents among other reasons, majority ofNigerian universities decided to establish SatelliteCampuses in various parts of the country.Okebukola (2001) noted that the desire ofNigerians to acquire higher education informedthe establishment of such centers, but pointedout that the operators were more interested in theeconomic gains which they hoped to derive ratherthan the provision of qualitative educations.

© Kamla-Raj 2004 J. Soc. Sci., 9(1): 23-27 (2004)

Adequate Library Facilities in Nigeria: A Key Contributor toSustainable Distance Education System

L.A. Ogunsola

Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, NigeriaE-mail: logunsola 2002@yahoo.com

KEYWORDS Nigerian library facilities; distance education, Nigerian educational system

ABSTRACT The paper identifies the problems associated with the establishment of Satellite Campus by majority ofNigerian Universities. The nation is aware of the decay inflicted on university education by some of the ubiquitousstudy centers. The paper, therefore, discusses the possibility of achieving higher functional literacy through distanceeducation system and stresses the importance of functional library facilities in the programme. The paper finallysuggests ways and means which the government can use to make the distance education system a success.

People are worried that the future of the nation issacrificed on the altar of economic gains beingmade in these centers rather than the provisionof good qualitative education. Akinpelu (1992)observed that in Nigeria, 50%-70% of the peopleare illiterates, in a nation whose population isestimated at 100 million. This means, in effect,that not less than 60 million of the citizens cannotread or write. Oni (1992) was of the opinion thatchildren are like seeds in the hands of adults, andthat it is the kind of fruits they are cultured tobear that they would germinate to bear atadulthood.

Ibadan - 9%Lagos - 7%Nsukka - 6%Zaria - 11%Ile-Ife - 6%Benin - 14%Jos - 7%Calabar - 24%Kano - 12%Maiduguri - 10%Sokoto - 13%Ilorin - 14%Port Harcourt - 12%Uyo - 15%Awka - 1%Abuja 1990/91-1998/99 - 125%Owerri - 22%Akure - 31%Minna - 32%Bauchi - 17%Yola - 43%Makurdi (1992/93-1998/99) - 3%Abeokuta (1992/93-1998/99) - 6%Umudike (1993/94-1998/99) - 223%Source: 1987/88 – Nigerian University System: Past,Present and Future, NUC.

Table 1: Average annual enrollment growoth 1989/90 - 1998/99

24 L.A. OGUNSOLA

In recognition of the educational needs ofNigerians, government was institutionalizing avirile distance education programme to beimplemented through the Open University ofNigeria, expected to take off in 2002 (Punch, 2001).It was pointed out that the action becomesnecessary because of the bastardization ofuniversity eduction in the country by the SatelliteCampuses. To meet up with the increasingdemands for the acquisition of universityeducation by Nigerians which prompted them tobe patronizing such illegal outlets, the FederalGovernment would ensure the take-off of theNational Open University in the country beforethe end of the year. The Federal Government onWednesday August 30, 2001 finally wielded thebig stick against universities operating SatelliteCampuses as it directed them to immediately closeshop (Punch, August 30, 2001). And to serve asa deterrent to further patronage of the SatelliteCampuses, government, through the NationalUniversity Commission (NUC) vowed not torecognize Certificates awarded by suchinstitutions.

It is the objective of this paper to point outthe problems associated with the operation ofSatellite Campuses, the need for distanceeducation system through the establishment ofNational Open University and the need foradequate library facilities in the proposed OpenUniversity System and in other parts of thecountry. The roles which adequate andfunctioning library facilities are expected to playin the Distance Education System would beemphasized.

DISTANCE EDUCATION SYSTEM –WHAT IS IT?

It is common knowledge that our educationalsystems cannot cater for all who are desirous ofeducation at all levels. For one reason or the othernot all can afford to do face-to-face learning evenof the short-time duration. To fill the gap, distanceeducation can be regarded as the answer.Distance education is a generic term that includesa range of teaching/learning strategies variouslyreferred to as correspondence education or studythe world over, as home study or independentstudy in the United States of America; externalstudies in Australia, etc. The exact meaning ofeach of these terms has been a subject of somedebate but in line with Rhumble and Harry (1982),

distance teaching will refer to the institutionalrole of providing education at a distance anddistance learning to the role of the learner whileteaching and learning will constitute the DistanceEducation System. However, the main aim of allthese is that of providing or communicating andacquiring some specific ideas, knowledge, skills,attitude and practice in response to somepredetermined needs. All these are done inorganized manners outside the formal face-to-face school framework. Distance Education thuscaters for those who for one reason or the othercannot attend face-to-face learning.

The aims and objectives of DistanceEducation will be:(a) to brush up and strengthen what is already

known;(b) introducing students to the basic concepts

and techniques of their chosen fields ofstudy and preparing them to launch into thenext stage of education. Both short and longterm objectives will include the following:-Distance Learners should be able to:

(a) speak and be understood;(b) listen to and understand conversation;(c) read and follow directions; and write his own

cheque, keep an account, write a bill or aninvoice and so on (Olayemi, 1993).

COMPONENTS OF DISTANCEEDUCATION SYSTEM

The following are some of the identifiedcomponents of Distance Education System:(1) Correspondence texts or lectures: These

could be in Units, modules or cycles; eachof which will teach a part of or a whole topic.

(2) Set books for readers: These are to be seenin our context as supplementary to thecorrespondence texts which must have beenfully illustrated and written in simplelanguage.

(3) Audio and Video Cassettes: In context, theaudio will be more easily accessible if massproduced specifically for literacy for all.Nigeria is yet to be able to take the full benefitof the video cassettes but they should forma part of the course-ware for the 21st century.

(4) Television: This too needs to be explored forthe 21st century. For now however, a 30minutes slot on National Network at thenational level and an hour or more on theState or local stations in the evening hours

25ADEQUATE LIBRARY FACILITIES IN NIGERIA

will go along way in raising the standard ofliteracy in the country.

(5) Radio: It is not an over-statement that manymore listen to the radio. Some hours taggedLiteracy Hour should be aired by differentstations daily. Each community will airlessons/lectures relevant to it (Olayemi,1993).

From the above listed components of distanceeducation system, the roles which functionallibrary system can play in its execution can neverbe over-emphasized. At all levels, as Kaegbein(1982) has rightly observed, the communicationsof knowledge play an important role not only viathe examples given by other persons, but alsothrough the individual’s own reading. A studentexposed to these relevant materials will thereforebe in a better position to raise relevant andintelligent questions, and also form his ownopinion about what he is taught in the class(Ogunsola, 1996). He may even become an ‘expert’on a particular topic, perhaps discovering aspectsunknown to the teacher.

LIBRARIES AND DISTANCEEDUCATION SYSTEM

The purpose of education is to pass onsociety’s cultural values and accumulated bodyof knowledge to the next generation (children)and to prepare them for meaningful adult life. Inparticular, the new Nigerian Education System hasemphasized creativity, scientific and reflectivethinking, inter-ethnic understanding amongothers and a holistic approach to teaching andlearning especially at the tertiary level. If we areto produce children who are self-reliant, and betterable to fit into their immediate environment andinteract successfully with the world at large weneed well developed Distance Education Systemwhich is well supported by adequate libraryfacilities like learning resources centers, MediaResource Centres, Instructional Materials Centresand so on. One of the reasons why illiteracy rateis high in Nigeria is because many people relapseinto secondary illiteracy for want of adequate andrelevant reading materials to sustain andconsolidate the reading skills acquired in theclassroom or Distance Education System.Without any shadow of doubt, the extent to whichchildren and young people of today will becreative, informed and knowledgeable will beshaped by the boundaries of the contents of thelibrary resources available within theirenvironment.

Library resources are those materials madeup of books, audio visual softwares, realia, audiovisual hardwares and other pedagogical materialsused in the teaching and learning processes.Library materials here are synonymous witheducational resources, learning resources ormedia resources. New trends all over the world,Nigeria included, are advocating a multimediaapproach to education. A wide variety andplentiful supply of resources are required toencourage independent study so that youngpeople from an early age can learn how to thinkso that their convictions and views are formed asa result of active mental efforts. A basic bookcollection whether for the primary, secondary ortertiary level should be rich and varied. It shouldcover all the subject areas of the school’scurriculum as well as cater for individual interestsand extra-curricula pursuits. For DistanceEducation System to be viable and well executed,the books and related resources should include awide variety of content for different levels ofreading ability, styles and types. All these mustbe made available in our various public librariesand the Open University Library. The OpenUniversity Library should contain books for thefast or slow readers, for the gifted and theretarded.

Audio visual or non book materials arebecoming increasingly very important in schoolor public libraries. Their importance as far asDistance Education System is concerned cannever be over emphasized. It is the availability ofthese in large numbers in any library which hasgiven such library its new name of MediaResource Centre. Audio visual resources are notaids as many teachers would have us believe.They are learning media in their rights. Televisionand Video-Tape Recordings are extremelyimportant in the proper execution of DistanceEducation System in Nigeria. These are highdemand gadgets and may not be within the reachof many prospective students of DistanceEducation System. But they have becomecommon house-hold appliances especially inurban areas of Nigeria. In fact many homes aremini-resource centers. The television and videocan provide a team production approach tolearning problems. They can magnify or reducedemonstration or illustrative materials. They cancapitalize on immediacy at the same time reachaudiences of any size. Television and videoaccelerate the teaching-learning processes as well

26 L.A. OGUNSOLA

as provide for special instruction. They permitthe viewing of widely different subjects at anygiven time. The only limitation in their usage isthe irregular power supply in Nigeria. If DistanceEducation system is to be successful, thisproblem of erratic electricity supply should beaddressed.

Audio Recordings are many and varied. Theyinclude phonograph records, recorded tapes,cassettes and the like. These resources appeal tothe aura senses of both teachers and the studentsespecially in non-face-to-face educational system.They are useful in developing or improvingchildren’s listening skills – an invaluable aspectof teaching – learning process. Audio recordingsare cheap and easy to produce. They are easy touse because they can be played and replayed atwill. It is also possible to combine audiorecordings with slides or filmstrips thus catchingthe ear and eye at the same time. It must be pointedout that if Distance Education System is to besuccessfully implemented, the teachers anddemonstrators or instructors of this laudableprogramme must see library staff and libraryresources as partners in the teaching learningprocesses. Both teachers and students must makeuse of library facilities available in their areas.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

It is a known fact that over one million pupilssit for the School Certificate/G.C.E. Ordinary levelexaminations every year, and that the JointAdmissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) canonly offer admission to less than 15 percent ofcandidates seeking university admission.Besides, an estimated 50,000 working adults whowere unable to obtain higher education will nowutilize the opportunity offered by distancelearning programmes to develop themselves on apart-time basis. It must be realized that the desirefor more learning is healthy. Modern societiesare knowledge-driven. Illiteracy and ignorancehave long been identified as enemies ofdevelopment and global efforts are being directedtowards meeting the people’s educational needsso that the benefits of globalization can spreadfaster. The challenge is, therefore, to maintain setstandards without limiting access to learning. Thegovernment has repeatedly expressed concernabout the poor quality of learning in manyuniversity outreach centers. The nation is awareof the decay inflicted on university education bysome of the ubiquitous study centers. It is also

realized that the Satellite campus system has longbeen hijacked by charlatans whose motives aremainly pecuniary. What the nation has had on itshand is a situation where many of the satellitecampuses dish out sub-standard education totheir students. Therefore, the need to enforcequality is not in doubt. While confronting theshort-comings of the satellite campuses, the hugedemand for university education by Nigerian mustnot be over-looked. The mushrooming ofoutreach centers was the logical response of asociety whose strong thirst for higher learninghas remained unsatisfied for many years. It canthen be concluded that the Federal Government’splan to establish an open university is a positivestep.

Various modes of instruction which areavailable to choose from have been suggested inthis paper. In a developing country like Nigeria, itmay be unrealistic to choose the video cassetteand the television for the execution of distantlearning programme. The most easily accessibleto a wider population is the print calledcorrespondence texts, then the audio cassettesand the radio. The video cassette and thetelevision are yet to become commodities of thecommon man and are not even easy to carryaround like the radio, the printed text and theaudio cassettes. Lessons on identified relevanttopics are to be written in simple easy tounderstand sentences using personal pronounsand discussant modes. Each of these lessons isto be clearly and fully illustrated; contain learningcues and built-in feedback system to keep thelearner on the study. At the initial stage andwithout audio cassette accompaniment what wewill have may look like picture reading but for thehigher illiterate it is functional literacy. Thelessons/lectures need not be too long: if they aretoo long, the learner becomes discouraged; if tooshort not much may be gained. The radio as hasbeen pointed out reaches a wider audience. Theremay be an urgent need for communication expertsto develop or adapt for the use of literacy for allmeans of communicating through cellular radio.This uses low-power radio transmitters that areplaced at mapped out strategic locations in formof resource center within the community. Suchwill enable more air hours for transmitting toprospective learners and teach and train usingthe correspondence materials/texts.

Audio cassettes like tapes (cassettes) andplayers can effectively be used in literacy for all

27ADEQUATE LIBRARY FACILITIES IN NIGERIA

through Distance Education System. Thegovernment will however have to design andspecially produce such tapes and players thusmaking them available cheaply to the populace.They then constitute a part of the course warefor literacy for all through Distance EducationSystem. The audio cassettes will teach what thecorrespondence texts contain. If painstakinglyand rightly cued and used many learners willbecome literate through them.

Vocation Schools, tutorials, weekend classesor contact sessions are also important as theynot only provide psychological satisfaction tothe learner that he too attends formal classes butmake room for clarifying problems arising fromself-study. At each of these contact sessions, athorough review of the previously studiedlessons, practicals would be done. It is certainthat if the written lectures, the audio cassettes,the radio programme(s) and the subsequentcontact session are useful to the learner, thedistance learner will be motivated to stay on theprogramme and even clamour for more advancedcourses. The self-help group, if well organized,may take over the duties of the contact sessionsunder the guidance of the teacher.

By adopting some or all the techniques andtechnologies just enumerated above, access toeducation and literacy will be increased and thequality of education will also be improved.However, if care is not taken, fragmentation andlack of coherence may result for courses beingtaught. It is therefore necessary to ensure thatcourse materials have explicit statements ofobjectives, are well structured and laid out;illustrated; written in a personalized language i.e.talk to the learner, are error-free and contain notonly learning cues but built-in feed-back systemsto help the learner check his progress. Also ifsuccess is to be achieved, writers of scripts, anefficient monitoring team, immediate feed-backsystem, ensure that lessons/lectures aremotivating to keep the learners on the course, arealso points to consider. In essence DistanceEducation System aimed at literacy for all shouldensure the appropriateness of programmes andof distance education techniques and technologyto the particular requirements of the community.The programme should be in consonance withidentified priorities while helping individuals andgroups generally acquire more awareness of andsensitivity to the environment and its problemsand begin to think of what they can do to address

the problem. The designed programme should befunctional. Time is a factor that is very importantin Distance Education System. Schedules ofwriting, editing production and distribution haveto be kept. Adequate, detailed and carefulplanning is critical to the whole teaching/learningarrangement of the Distance Education System ifsuccess in literacy is to be substantial.

The government must make it mandatory forthe organizers and the executors of DistanceEducation System to deposit copies ofcorrespondence texts, audio cassettes and otherteaching and learning materials produced by themto the various libraries available in theirenvironment. This will be useful for DistanceEducation Students to make reference to any ofthese materials when there is the need for it. Asemphasized by Etuk, (1993) librarians are servantsand the major gateways to knowledge. As such,it is recommended that the federal and stategovernments should encourage the creation ofthe position of literacy librarians in our publiclibraries and saddle them with the responsibilityof initiating meaningful programmes for thosewho, as a result of poverty, learning deficiency orphysical or mental disability continue to liveunder the handicap of functional illiteracy.

REFERENCES

Akinpelu, J.A. 1992. “Education and Mass Literacy,Danger and Opportunities for Nigeria in the 21st

Century”. Education Today. Sept.: 41-44.Etuk, Mfon. 1993. “Promotion of literacy awareness by

Nigerian University Libraries: Strategies for Success”.Literacy and Reading in Nigeria, 6: 29.

Hartnett, Terara. 2000. Financing Trends and Expendi-ture Patterns in Nigerian Federal Universities: anUpdate. Abuja, NUC, pp.1-2.

Kaegbein, P. 1982. “On the Role of Libraries in theProcess of Education”. International Library Review.14: 336.

Ogunsola, L.A. 1996. “Reading Habits of SecondarySchool Students in Ife Central Local Government,Ile-Ife”.Ife Psychologia: An International Journal.4: 205.

Okebukola, Peter. 2001. “Federal Government OrdersClosure of Satellite Campuses”. The Punch Thursday,August 30, pp.2.

Olayemi, A.E. 1993. “Promoting literacy for all throughDistance Education System”. Literacy and Readingin Nigeria, 6: 302.

Oni, A. 1992. “Mobilizing Adult Illiterates: A Perspectivefor a Developing Country”. Education Today, Sept:38-40.

The Punch 2001. “FG Orders Closure of SatelliteCampuses”. The Punch, Aug., 30, pp.1-2.

Rhumble, G. and K. Harry (eds.). 1982. The DistanceTeaching Universities. London, New York: GoomHelm St. Martins.