The education system in Nigeria can best be described in tandem with deteriorating infrastructure and unpleasant service conditions.
According to UNICEF, one in five out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria. Although primary education is officially free and compulsory, around 10.5 million children in the country between the ages of 5 and 14 are out of school. Add to that the millions of people who are semi-educated due to a dilapidated education system. Education as is known is the root of all development but unfortunately it has taken over in Nigeria which is sad. This is largely due to poor educational infrastructure due to neglect and insufficient funding, inadequate classrooms, poorly equipped or non-existent learning facilities, unqualified teachers, terrible learning environments and conditions. , as well as certain social vices that afflict educational institutions. talking about strikes, worship and the like Since independence, government after government has experimented with policies to improve this very vital sector, some of which have been laudable. However, poor implementation, greed, corruption, embezzlement and lack of will have proven time and time to be our stumbling block.
Careful assessment of activities also revealed that other irregularities in schools such as malpractices, strikes and lack of willingness to learn on the part of students also contributed to the downfall of the education system in Nigeria. Pray, why will it take 6 years to study a 4 year course because of a faulty system! This brings me to why many young people want to study abroad when the system has collapsed and most of our graduates are unemployable; reason being that those who teach them are not even ready.
Today, the deteriorating state of the Nigerian education system has made it almost a taboo for the typical Nigerian not to aspire to be educated abroad. The truth is, to have a chance to compete in the ever-changing global (work) world, students need the required skills – which are unlikely to be imparted to them by the current education system in Nigeria, and thus, they go in search of it abroad where it is available.
Nigerians studying in tertiary institutions in the United States increased by 5.8% to 13,423 in the 2018/19 academic year from 12,693 in the 2017/18 academic year, according to the open door report of the Institute of International Education (IIE). It’s just in tertiary universities in the United States. The impact of this is that the country loses its youth and its workforce to other countries because many students refuse to return. In the United States, 4% of Nigerians have a doctorate degree, compared to 1% of the general population of the United States, according to the United States Census Bureau. 17% of Nigerians hold a master’s degree while 37% hold a bachelor’s degree
Over time, there has been a deterioration of our education system. There is a system that does not work for young people. Something is wrong with our education system and it is time to change that.
Nigerian students are high quality and quality, they are now being offered scholarships and such to come and study in the UK, for example.
What can be done?
For meaningful development to take place in the education sector, the government needs to re-examine the issue of funding and there needs to be a total shift from focus to government. There is an urgent need for private-public partnership to invest heavily in education in terms of infrastructure, technology, teachers, research funding in order to be able to compete at scale world.
There’s no better time to encourage hands-on technical education than now. Adaptation technical centers should be encouraged and well funded. Enough of the monolithic approach to knowledge.
Invest heavily in technology for learning and teaching so you can compete globally. The research sub-sector which is grossly neglected and gambled on in Nigeria is the foundation of the socio-economic, political, scientific and technological progress of our most admired developed nations in the world today.
Funding is the biggest problem facing the Nigerian education system. The percentage of the budget allocated annually to education is appallingly low. For example in 2018, just over 7% was allocated to education. This is well below the 26% recommended by UNESCO. Relatively, this is no way to compete in the global space. In addition, the private sector should be encouraged to partner with the public sector to provide adequate financing to uplift the education sector.
In conclusion, it is undeniable that the Nigerian education system requires total restructuring which is necessary to improve the performance of primary and tertiary institutions. Nigeria entered the 21st century unprepared to compete in the ever-changing global economy, where growth will be knowledge-based.
It is also a fact that the shortcomings still seen in many undergraduate and graduate students are a result of the shortcomings associated with the primary and secondary education system in Nigeria. Since no nation can develop above its educational system, education being akin to development, it has become imperative now more than ever to find solutions to the problems of diminishing resource allocation to education sector in Nigeria
Conscious efforts must be made for a quality and sustainable education system so that Nigeria can rise up to be counted.
Mr. Ilouno, CEO of Next Generation Global Association, wrote from Lagos.
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