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The poverty of education in Nigeria |
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By Ibibia Lucky Worika, Ph.D. (EMAIL) Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Rivers State University of Science & Technology, Port-Harcourt, Nigeria Wednesday, May 9, 2001 
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Ordinarily, a news item such as that, which indicates the abysmal performance of candidates for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations would have gone unnoticed but, for the fact that it is about ONDO STATE. By the way, I am not a Yoruba by tribe and, can, therefore, not be accused of being ethnocentric about my concern. Anyone conversant with education in Nigeria would appreciate that Ondo State is a pace-setter. That State is reputed to have the largest number of educated Nigerians relative to the uneducated population vis-a-vis other States. We have often been told, and truly, it may seem that, there is hardly a family without a Doctorate degree holder, a professor, or professional in Ondo State. For a State that has continued to blaze the trail in higher education in Nigeria to record such bewildering level of failure in the just concluded Senior Secondary School Examinations should strike any patriotic Nigerian as a thing of utmost concern. Now, without wanting to sound off-handish or immodest, what would we say about the States in the North or South South? Upon the advent of our nascent democracy, hopes were high that the new crop of civilians would put the education of our children in its rightful place in the general scheme of things. Unfortunately, this hope appears to be fading away by the day. Last year, the Obasanjo administration spent just about 9% of the national budget on education (not university education but, the entire education sector). This year, it is spending less than 8% of the national budget. When ASUU says this is not right, government retorts that, there are other competing and no less important sectors. True, there are other competing sectors, but how do other nations manage their budget in such a manner that education is given a pride of place? In any event, the United Nations has suggested that nations all over the world should spend at least 26% of their national budgets on education. Interestingly, this is so for all countries, whether developed, developing, capitalist or socialist. Accordingly, any sincere developing country that seriously intends to catch up should spend more. But, granted that the Federal Government is right in spending in other sectors, we are yet to see any meaningful impact of the implementation of the national budget on these so called other important sectors - agriculture, health, transport and energy, especially electricity. On the contrary, if we take agriculture, for instance, the latest findings indicate that the prices of foodstuffs have gone up astronomically in the past two months. For those Nigerians in Diaspora and, who may not be aware, a bag of garri now goes for 6000 naira as against its previous selling price of about 4000 naira. So, who is fooling who? In what sector is our national budget being spent? It may interest our readers to note that even the late General Sani Abacha spent more on education (11%), when compared to our democratic government. Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana can be taken as the leaders in Sub-Saharan African development initiatives. The populations of South Africa and Ghana combined is just about half of that of Nigeria. Yet each of these countries spends an average of 30% of its national budget on education, underpinning the significance they both place on this strategic sector for national development. ASUU has consistently maintained, and rightly in my humble view that, our government must spend more on education, if we are to continue to play our leadership role in Africa and be regarded as a serious and respected nation. No one doubts that one of the means by which the so called Asian Tigers overcame their economic underdevelopment was to concentrate on human capital development. The sound education of our youths must be a top priority of any responsible and responsive government. This is so even in those advance economies, which are already a million light years from us in Nigeria, in terms of technological and economic development. In my hotel room this morning, I listened-in to a news item that the British Government is about to provide over 180,000 camcorders to Secondary Schools so that Students could monitor their own performance in physical education. Surely, this may be a luxury in Nigeria. But, back home, even the basics - science equipment and chemicals, computers, good libraries containing books, journals and up to date periodicals, or laboratories are either missing, or inadequately funded. Students' hostel accommodation is generally in a dilapidated state. Classrooms are inadequate, although there are increasing in-takes. Sometimes, half the class takes their lectures standing outside the classrooms. There are hardly any recreational facilities for our youths, who now resort amongst others to secret cult activities. This is what you find from the secondary to university levels now. There is even no national policy on nursery education in Nigeria with the result that all kinds of nursery schools are 'mushrooming' in every nook and crany. How then can we be talking about development, whether in this millenium or the next? Cannot something drastic be done about this? Is it not possible for the governments, whether at Federal, State or Local Government Levels to put their heads together and put aside a reasonable percentage of their respective budgets to revamping the education sector? If this is done, I bet, there would be less uneducated people to fool around in politics. Could this be the reason why government is spending less on this vital area? Most educated people would vote according to their consciences and, what they believe is the capability of the political contestants. Ethnic sentiments and religious prejudices would nolonger play such prominent roles in the choice of leadership. In any event, the political class would be hard put to presenting a credible candidate that would earn the respect and admiration of most educated Nigerians. The kind of stories you hear in the Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area, where political big-wigs have used youths in settling political scores would be a thing of the past.  |
he news from Akure that, ONLY 1,700 candidates out of 269,000, who sat
for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination conducted by the
West African Examina Council (WAEC) in Ondo State passed the examination
is the clearest indication yet that Nigerian leaders are toying with
education. By education, I mean, education in all its widest possible
ramifications from nursery to primary, and then secondary and more
particularly, university education. The recent strike by the Academic
Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which is going into its second month
without any positive signals from the Ministry of Education or the
Federal Executive Council underscores how low our government in Nigeria
rates the education sector, for reasons that are difficult to fathom.