The Nigerian education system which produced world renowned scholars in the past has become a shadow of its former self today. The declining standard of the nation’s education has reached such a level that if proper actions are not taken now, subsequent generations will suffer the consequences. This is one of the things affecting our development as a country as one of the ways a country can develop is through quality education of its citizens.
The former Central Bank governor, Prof. Charles Soludo made a heart rending comment about our education system in a convocation lecture he delivered at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta not long ago. In his paper entitled “The unfinished business with the banking revolution in Nigeria”, he said among other things that “if a company administers a test on 100 graduates, 71 of them will not be suitable for the job.”
Also, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban ki Moon, speaking at the opening of the United Nations conference on trade and development in Ghana mentioned Nigeria specifically as one of the countries in Africa that may not meet the millennium development goals set for 2016. The picture painted by Soludo and Ban ki Moon is nothing compared to what further awaits the country in the event that government continues to tread on this path of neglecting the importance of education in human and national development.
Funding has been established as perhaps the greatest problem in the education sector. A review of the Federal Government’s budgetary allocation to education from 2000 to 2008 showed clearly government did not consider education a priority. In 2000, the budgetary allocation to education was 8.36 percent. It decreased to 7 percent in 2001 and in 2002 rose to a mere 8 percent only to shrink again in 2003 to 7 percent. There was slight improvement in 2004 when it moved up to 12 percent only to reduce to 11 percent in 2005 and 2006. In 2008, the budgetary allocation rose to 13 percent which is still nothing to write home about considering the recommended minimum of 26 percent by UNESCO.
Despite the new government’s improved budgetary allocation of 30 percent to the sector this year, many Nigerians are still skeptical about its implementation going by our various experiences in the past. The implications of limited resources in the education sector are that we would continue with inadequate infrastructures, overcrowded classrooms and lack of qualified teachers to mention but a few.
Another significant area that has posed serious challenge to the education sector in Nigeria is the dearth of qualified teachers. Because of the dwindling prestige of the teaching profession occasioned by the poor remuneration of teachers, there are very few serious minded individuals embracing the career today. The few technically qualified ones are leaving the profession in droves in search of greener pasture and with this development; one wonders how the fallen standard of education will be redressed.
Studies have shown that about 20 percent of teachers in the country do not possess even the grade two certificates which used to be the minimum requirement for teaching in this country. If this is not worrisome, one wonders what is. The government should be concerned about how to address the dearth of qualified teachers in the system. In nearby Ghana, there is said to be a policy in place that attracts the bright students into the teaching profession. Here, the opposite is the case. The quality of our teachers in many states of the federation is very much in doubt. It is said people cannot give what they don’t have. We can replicate the Ghanaian policy in this country as a way of raising our standard of education and addressing developmental issues.
A lot of students have either been prevented from reaching their optimal potentials by these unqualified and half-baked teachers or frustrated out from taking subjects that would have better placed them into courses that are in hot demand in the job market. The effect of this may follow them all through their lives.
The dignity of the teaching profession must be restored in Nigeria if the profession is to be attractive to qualified youth. Government must through grants, scholarship, better remunerations and conditions of service attract more university students into education sector. This is a better way for a country to go in addressing its developmental problems.
ADDRESSING FALLEN STANDARD OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
