The Downhill of Education in Nigeria

The future of any country can be predicted by the number and quality of educated elites among its population.  That is why the size of a country cannot guarantee its economic prowess. Nigeria being the largest state in Africa has continued to suffer setbacks in economic development because it has failed to address its key issues. The former minister of education Obiangeli Ezekwesili says report revealed that 56milion Nigerians are illiterate. 

The quality of education in Nigeria has attained the status of question mark. According to the above statistics anyone would have expected the number of literate individuals to compensate for the strain that may be caused in economic growth and development. However, reverse is the case in the Nigerian chronicle.  The report of the Labour Market Observatory Project presented to the President states that ‘many graduates are perceived to lack the skills needed by employers of labour and the training offered by the universities were not in tune with the needs of the society’. The question becomes what is the rationality of the training offered by Nigerian universities when it is in truth, not in tune with the needs of the society?

Few graduates who are able to make their marks contributing meaningfully to economic development are those who have trailed the solitary path of self discovery and diverted from the traditional and obsolete learning procedures of our institutions.

A recent National Youth Service Corps Member who was posted to serve in a local community secondary school in Oyo state observed that more than ninety percent of the students in the school cannot construct or speak simple correct English. The school lacked qualified teachers and basic infrastructures. He was moved with passion to organize a meeting with the community elders on how he could set up a library for the local school. The school principal and elders obliged by providing a space within the school for the library while he solicits for educational materials at the state library. All efforts however proved futile when informed that since past four years of present administration, the state library had not been catered for by the state government. There was no allocation of resources or supply of books to the state library for four good years. The shelves of the state library itself were starved and scanty.

It is unclear whether the government does not set its priorities right or perhaps, these are planned efforts to sabotage and enslave the future of younger generations. If we clamour for change, then we must indeed take necessary steps for change to take place.  In the words of nelson Mandela, “education is the most powerful weapon that can change anything”. When we build the people, the people build the state. It is time for our governments to disengage itself from expensive projects but of worthless value to the lives and future of the citizens. Education is the true liberation and conservation of human race and as such demands utmost priority. We hope that our government will take into account the significance of education to the future of our country and make every necessary effort to rescue us from intellectual and societal poverty.