Education is an investment that pays off any time anywhere. And in a world of crumbling economies and turbulent times, where investors spend sleepless nights trying to figure out how their stocks are doing, investing in education becomes
even more paramount.
By investing in education, governments, corporations, communities, NGOs and individuals can help prepare the youths for
the challenges ahead. If children are really the leaders of tomorrow, then it is time we started investing in them!
Regrettably , Illiteracy has come to stay in many developing countries of the world, including Nigeria, and has continued to pose a threat to many such nations. On this my blog you will learn more about education in Nigeria and the future of those pupils who are not opportuned to
further their education after leaving primary school.
At the dawn of the year 2002, Nigeria is
still uncertain where it is headed. In
other words, her destination is still
unknown. The Nigerian world has
blamed the woes of Nigeria, and in
particular that of the educational sector,
to the many years of military misrule.
There is the common feeling that the
military neglected the universities
because of their opposition to military
rule. But with the re-emergence of civil
rule the nation's educational
institutions are still in shambles today,
with university professors still not
being paid on time. (Some may argue
that the universities have started to
claw their way back to normalcy with
the reprise of civil rule ) and is that true ?
If, strictly speaking, there is no such
thing as democracy in Nigeria, it is
because its past as well as its present
history has become so interwoven into
crises, which has often left the common
man in constant struggle for survival.
But for the riches and powerful corrupt
politicians, things are very rosy. The
role of the ordinary person in Nigeria
in the making of democracy is, generally speaking, not regarded or not known at all, after casting his or her vote. And often the positive contributions of the people who
struggled, and are still struggling, for
the sustenance of democracy in the
society have escaped the eyes of those
who managed to rig their way into
political offices.
This is a terrible deviation from the norm . Nigeria is suffering terribly for that, with socio-political and economic crises strewn all over the society like a straw hut in a
typhoon.
Education in Nigeria: A public-health
issue?
The role of education in the development of a society has been vastly documented in academic journals, and we do not intend to revisit it here. This section will
concentrate on the need for Nigerian
leaders to pay close attention to the needs of the educational sector, and treat it as a public-health issue, because the sociopolitical and economic development of a nation and is, in many ways, determined by the quality and level of educational attainment of the population.
Political leaders should take politics out of
education, as the continued neglect of this sector would lead to social paralysis. The youth should be given the appropriate quality academic training and an environment that would enable them to reach their full potential.
Nigeria has toiled with some educational programs, which have only served as conduits to transfer money to the corrupt political leaders and their cronies. For instance, the nation launched the Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976, but as noted, the program failed due to lack of fund necessitated by corruption, among other factors. Nigeria has again
launched another mass-oriented
education program, this time branding
it the Universal Basic Education (UBE).
The President, Olusegun Obasanjo,
declared during the launching of the
program in Sokoto that the nation
"cannot afford to fail this time around."
However, not long after that, the
federal government reported that the
falling standard of education in Nigeria
is caused by "acute shortage of qualified
teachers in the primary school level." It
is reported that about 23 percent of the
over 400,000 teachers employed in the
nation's primary schools do not posses
the Teachers' Grade Two Certificate,
even when the National Certificate of
Education (NCE) is the minimum
educational requirement one should
posses to teach in the nation's primary
schools . What a pathetic country.
If one may ask: with the troubling
revelations of the shortage and "half-
baked" teachers employed to teach in
the nation's schools, how are we certain
the current UBE program will be
successful? Has the government trained
the required number and quality of
teachers needed to successfully
implement the program? Are the
teachers going to be motivated to
perform their duties well? Are the
classrooms and seats ready, or are the
pupils going to sit on bare floor? Are
the books and other teaching materials
ready? .
But the leaders do not seem to want to listen!
Today, there are about 48,242 primary schools with 23,796,078 students in public schools and 2,965,517 in private schools in Nigeria. In addition, Nigeria has 7,104
secondary schools with 6,768,981
students, Most of these schools are in dilapidating states. This shows that Nigeria has a weird value system: it is a society where priorities are turned to their heads.
For instance, the salaries of the less
educated local government counselors
are higher than that of university
professors; it is a place where well
known rouge, a 419 person, is
applauded for donating money to local
communities and churches; it is a place
where nobody cares about how one
makes his/her money; it is a place
where the roads leading to million
dollar homes are filled with potholes;
and the society is a place where the
streets in capital cities are littered with
hips of thrash. And nobody cares!
Something is obviously wrong with any
society that does not take her
educational institutions seriously.
Nevertheless, the increased need for
higher education during the oil boom of
the 1970s in Nigeria, coupled with
political pressure, led to the
establishment of many universities in
the society. And 'an explosive
expansion in enrollments' during this
period marked the beginning of 'the
decline in quality' of education in the
society. In two decades, the number of
university students increased eightfold,
from about 55,000 in 1980 to more than
400,000 today ( what a mess).
As the ugly tradition of corruption
persists, the public tertiary institutions
have been left to rot away. Some of the
loans received from the World Bank
toward education during the 1990s
were used to purchase unnecessary, and
"expensive equipment" that "could not
be properly installed or maintained,
and many institutions received
irrelevant and useless books and
journals". All these, including ubiquitous corruption, have contributed to the decline in the quality of Education in Nigeria's
educational institutions that were ones
highly regarded.
With the news of corruption still filling the pages of Nigeria newspapers and magazines, the apparent war on corruption in the society seem an impossible task, since those wagging the corruption-war are themselves as corrupt as a parrot.
For the success of any democratic
system (which Nigeria now fiddles with)
depends on the individuals' ability to
analyze problems and make thoughtful
decisions. And democracy, it has been
argued, thrives on the productivity of
its diverse constituency - a productivity
fostered by free, critical, and creative
thought on issues of common interest.
But democratic values are nurtured on
the fertile ground of basic education – a
functional education with the right
focus and correct scope (Marzano, et. al,
1988)
With everybody chasing the shadow of
money, and with the pittance sum
invested yearly on education, how could
the system produce the critical and
creative minds Nigeria needs to guide
and manage democratic system and
survive as a viable nation? If the society
continues to neglect her schools, it could
not educate her citizens.
Consequently,the political landscape would be littered with illiterate politicians, and the society would be incapable of gathering and maintaining a reasonable database for national planning and other
development programs. To avoid this,
the political leaders should begin now
to re-order their priorities, as their
priorities have so far been dictated by
how much they will gain from any
policy decision (by ways of contracts),
and not how they will benefit the society as a whole.
Thus, lack of good education and
unemployment in Nigeria would
contribute to many social ills, including
crime, prostitution, and the break down
in law and order. For this, the society
should invest more on the youth, and
educate them to differentiate rights
from wrong before they become adults.
Therefore, to move forward the
government should adopt necessary
policies to destroy the current bad value
system in the society, and create
conducive environment that would
enable the educational institutions to
engage in healthy competitions, raise
funds through private donations and
grants, and attract and retain qualified
students financially positioned to pay
tuitions. On my note, Higher education in Nigeria should not be free. If one would pay for any service, one could afford to
complain, or move to an institution
where he/she could get the money's
worth of service. This, however, does
not mean that diplomas should be sold
to the highest bidder.
Also the universities should develop a system whereby students could transfer to schools of their choice (and change
their major) if they are qualified,
without it adversely impacting their
studies. And university admissions
should be based strictly on merit,
without ethnically and state-based
criteria, which have unfortunately
colored the system. All these are not
available in system currently. If these
suggestions are implemented they
would, among other things, help the
institutions of higher learning to
prepare grounds for more intense
academic competition, and to attract
better quality teachers by "rebuild [ing]
a culture of scholarship which has been
eroded by under funding" so as to
motivate them to be more productive.
And any institution that cannot survive should be allowed to wither. Improving the
condition of things in this sector would
pave the way to the nation's prosperity.
It is known (at least in the developed
world) that education determines, not
only earning capacity, but also the very
quality of human life (even longevity
has relationship to education). In a
society that appreciates educated class,
those with good education tend to earn
higher incomes; they also are in a
better position to live a better and
healthy live. Higher education gives one
a greater sense of how to reduce risks
in life and change their behaviour.
Comparatively, many uneducated
people, in general, have myriad bad
habits that cause or lead to illness. For
instance, they can smoke or drink more
than it is necessary, and tend to have
more children, some of the less educated and unemployed villagers I have come across with have about eight or more children. And they are proud of that – but the children are suffering. Many of them drink and eat whatever that is offered to them without limitation and cognizant of the health consequences).
Higher education could be an important part in the solutions to the ills of the society. As noted earlier, how much a nation progresses has a lot to do with the
quality of education and educational
attainment of its citizens. That's why
Nigeria should build and maintain good
schools and treat the sordid state of
education as public-health crisis in
society. May God bless this country Nigeria
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