There are no right words to describe Nigeria’s educational sector, but abysmally and terribly deteriorated might be a good place to start. Rather than asking what is wrong with Nigeria’s educational sector, the question would be, ‘What isn’t?’
Education in Nigeria is riddled with issues like outdated educational curricula, poor funding, lack of infrastructure, nonexistent libraries, poor access to quality education at all levels, and incessant strikes at the tertiary level. Get rid of incompetent teachers and unqualified teachers, and we might be getting somewhere with identifying the problems.
However, the problems of the educational sector in Nigeria are no secret, so instead of flogging a dead horse, we might as well focus on what can be done, and what should be done urgently to get it right with the educational system in Nigeria before we lose all the progress we have gained in decades past in the area of education.
Increase the Budget for Education
We would be wishing on horses or expecting an impossible miracle if we think there is any chance of the educational sector improving with the paltry budget set aside for education every year.
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While UNESCO recommends that countries allocate 26% of their budget to education, Nigeria comfortably budgets below 10% every year, some of which will still get siphoned by the corrupt individuals in the sector, leaving less than 5% to actually be spent on education. It is a universal truth that you cannot reap where you didn’t sow. It is therefore, no surprise that we reap poor quality, underqualified teachers, and half-baked students coming out of our educational sector. Nigerian politicians, especially the ministers of education and other relevant stakeholders need to invest massively in education as that is the first step in reviving the educational sector. Approving hundreds of private schools and universities is a sign of laziness and insensitivity as the standard of education is not only left in the hands of private individuals, but education becomes too expensive for the average Nigerian to afford.
Revamping The Curriculum
The educational system is only as good as its curriculum, and if that is the case, then Nigeria’s educational system is outdated and obsolete. For over a decade and nearing two, schools in Nigeria have continued to use the same curriculum; the same books, the same authors, the same lesson notes, and the same topics, while the rest of the world has moved on.
We have failed to adopt the modern subjects that other countries of the world have embraced. Entrepreneurial studies, technological skills, and vocational training remain foreign to us. Rather than teach these in schools, a graduate of a prestigious university has to depend on the skill acquisition training they get during NYSC or pay to be taught some of these basic skills after spending 20 years of their lives in one level of school or the other.
While the world is changing so fast, we have failed to run with the tide. In this technological age, computer science students are still learning only theories and having their first experience with actual computers during Industrial training, or even at their first jobs. How do we expect to ever produce graduates who will lead in technology and innovation on a national and global scale?
We are in dire need of quality technical and vocational centers throughout the country, but even the few we have are ill-equipped and lacking experts. We must correct that, and correct it’s now.
Investing in Teachers
Isn’t it surprising that we expect to have quality teachers who will impact the right quality of knowledge in our children, while we forget that even the teachers are a product of the crippled educational system?
We must improve the quality of teachers, and the only way to achieve this is to invest in teacher’s training. How many times in a year do teachers get sent out for training? Some teachers never get any professional training from when they graduate until they retire. They know nothing about new teaching methods, how to leverage technology, or how to include current realities in their teaching. In the end, they give us graduates who are just as backward as they are. We can only get the right quality of education when we invest in our teachers and get the right quality of teachers. Every secondary school or university leaver isn’t a teacher. Teachers have their colleges of education where they are moulded into what the educational sector needs, and we must ensure that teachers pass through all the levels of training they need, and get updated training every few years to keep pace with best practices in education.
Improve infrastructure in schools
A visit to government primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions across the country will leave you in shock at how terrible infrastructure has gotten. While some primary and secondary school pupils learn on the floor, you have thousands of university students cramped in a lecture hall designed to house only a quarter of that number. Colleges of science and technologies have no equipment, there are no sound systems for large lecture halls, medical students have to learn with outdated equipment that aren’t even being used in hospitals these days, and hostel accommodations for students have become a horror that is better avoided than experienced.
Sadly, most of the leaders of today attended school at the best of times when the libraries were equipped with books, free lunch was a thing, and the environment was very conducive for learning. It will forever be confusing how they can watch things deteriorate to this extent without even trying to maintain the standard they were lucky to have in their time.
Nigeria’s government needs to be intentional about infrastructural development in schools. Basic necessities like tables and chairs, whiteboards, and blackboards are still lacking, talk more about IT-enabled learning environments.
Better Welfare for Teachers and Lecturers
Hardly one year goes by when labor unions, university, and polytechnic lecturers are not going on strike; sometimes even for nearly a year, without the government battling an eyelid.
Teachers are being paid peanuts, so they would hardly pay any attention to their duties. Rather, they would spend time on some other business that would pay them enough to keep them going.
Paltry salaries and remunerations, zero health insurance, terrible pension payments, and experiences, as well as many other problems, have made teaching a career that is terribly despised. ‘The reward of teachers is in heaven’ has become a mantra, and this situation scares away the experienced hands, leaving teaching jobs to people who just couldn’t find anything else to keep them employed. That doesn’t sound like the kind of educational system we want. Nigeria must ensure better welfare for its teachers and lecturers if anything will change sometime soon.
Finally, sincerity on the part of our leaders is the only way to get Nigeria to move forward as far as education is concerned.
The solutions for improving the Nigerian educational system are before us, but our leaders must stop paying lip service to these things without doing anything about them. Instead, a state of emergency needs to be declared over the sector. Good policies and frameworks need to be put in place, in line with the best global standards and practices. This is the education we deserve, and it is the education we must get if we need things to change for the better.
