The Nigeria education sector: A cry for transformation

WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER

info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com

It is just about two years into the presidency and Administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I can boldly beat my chest that I committed every resource within my reach, as a party man and a former Director of Organisation of the ruling party, APC, at the national level, to the campaign that gave our party, the APC, yet another victory and brought in this Administration, two years ago. That I am not recognised or yet to be recognised as the case may be, is also not a terrible issue as I as well know understandingly that it is impossible for the government to recognise every party faithful who contributed to the campaign in a direct form of government appointment, especially within a relatively short period of time of two years; but there are however things we campaigned with. Things we told Nigerians we will deliver to them, and we cannot afford to disappoint the nation. Seeing the government delivering the Renewed Hope promises substantially would be my strong comfort;  that we did not make mistakes lining up behind our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Administration since its inauguration did hit the ground running as it proclaimed, with very stringent policies albeit necessary. Nigerians have been made to pay huge prices of policies incubation and maturation, so much that it appears oftentimes that the government is not doing anything and is unaware of the need and suffering of Nigerians. Yet, while there are palpable sufferings across the country, it is impossible and amounts to sheer dishonesty to say that the government has not and is not making a worthy impact in several sectors and even more of the national socio-economy. Yet, more and more still has to be done, and fast enough to bring smiles and succor to Nigerians.

Today, my attention is on the Nigerian educational system; highlighting the rots, palpable fundamental rots in the system, and setting the way forward for a reinvigorated educational system for the country; and one that meets up with the global standards. Last week, I pointed out the decades-long decay we have had to live with, and the need to address them if the country is to, by any means, translate that very critical sector into a positive for the country. No nation would think of real growth and development without a virile educational system. Cultivating the minds of the young population to meet up with the global developmental trends is as important as any other role the government owes the citizens, and can only be done in a purposeful and coordinated educational system.

Just days ago, the President of the United States of America dealt a blow to Harvard University’s long standing foreign student admission; and we wonder how that decision affects Nigeria. It is not only Harvard, Nigerian undergraduates and postgraduates students are spread and litter across schools in the contiguous West. There is the subtle agreement that those schools are far better than what we have here in the country, and graduates from there would fare better at workplaces. Even our government and Nigeria-based industries offer scholarships opportunities that are scrambled for by thousands of Nigerians every other year to study overseas.

So, we ask ourselves, where did we go wrong? What is wrong with our education that we cannot stand at par with those overseas? What becomes of our universities that were receiving foreign students in the early 1960s, all the way to the late 1970s? How did we go down to the point where we are now? What must we do to address this terrible problem in our body polity?

No   nation would be able to stand on its own, industrially and produce for itself and for export if its educational system is faulty and worst still, broken. In reality, the national level of home grown education is a key driver of the country’s economic growth and industrial development. It is the educated population of a country that contributes effectively and efficiently to a more skilled workforce, fostering innovation, productivity and technological advancement.  Technical and higher education levels enable the citizens to adapt to evolving industry demands and participate in complex economic activities, all the way from manufacturing to high-end technological services.  A country that intentionally invests in quality home grown education will naturally tend to experience faster industrialisation, massive youth engagements, as education promotes entrepreneurship, research, and efficient management practices. Moreover, a well-educated workforce attracts foreign investment, supports the development of local industries, and enhances global competitiveness. If as a country, our desire is the achievement of a robust economy, then, ramping up investment in home grown education as a foundation for sustainable development is the way to go. We must be determined to revisit the structure of our educational system and evolve a better system that would equip our citizens with the knowledge and skills needed to build and maintain robust industrial economies of the present times and the future.

Investment in student loans is a positive and strong policy, but we need far more interventions in the Nigerian educational sector. While the students’ loan program allows access to education by the less privileges, the need to realise that our educational system faces deep-rooted structural and systemic problems that prevent it from meeting global standards and responding effectively to our national needs and modern challenges and be so willing and ready at all levels to overhaul the structure, and create a working education system for our nation remains a national imperative.

There are too many elements that foster a faulty foundation on our education and hinder its capacity to reach the level of global competitiveness that we so desire. The first and most fundamental is the fact that by some unbelievable permutation, we have continually held on to and only revolve around the colonial education legacy that was handed over to us several decades ago. We continue to manage an educational system that promotes and emphasises rote learning, clerical training, examination successes, and a Eurocentric worldview that brings less to nothing relevance to realities and current global trends. The structure of the curriculum we develop for the nation is such that it has more than often fails to incorporate real skill development, lacking effectiveness, in most cases in the capacity to imbibe digital literacy, critical thinking, problem-solving and STEM innovations. Everything about our system as it is now, is writing, passing examinations and obtaining certifications.

It is apparent that Nigeria’s national education system is grossly underfunded. First, from the poorly allocated budgetary provision, and then to the corruption that misappropriated the paltry that is allocated to the sector. The low budget has never met the UNESCO-recommended 15-20 percent of the national budget. This low and inconsistent funding of the sector undermines the much needed infrastructure, research, teachers’ salaries and innovations in the sector. The low funding also has led to the continuous infrastructural decay of existing facilities in existing educational institutions. This has also led to the worrisome brain drain the country is experiencing across the critical sectors including education; we continue to record qualified educators and researchers leaving the country for better opportunities abroad. Most of our institutions are now populated with tutors without proper training and qualifications, most especially at the primary and secondary levels.

Outside the funding challenge, the most worrisome problem facing our educational system that has appeared acceptable overtime, is the focus of certification over skill attributes of the system. We run a system that prioritises passing examinations over real learning or practical skill acquisition. This is the singular reason why cheating and examination malpractices have become the order of the day in the system and have totally undermined credibility, while discouraging hard work and innovation. We turn out tens of thousands of graduates each year from all our tertiary institutions, yet the country continues to overtly depend on imported brains to undertake its most technical jobs, while referring to our graduates as unemployables.

These countries we hold in high esteem academically, and those countries that export expatriates to us to do what we refer to as high-technical jobs, value technical and vocational education above every other. Majority of the expatriates our graduates bow down to, here in Nigeria, are products of technical institutions from those nations. This is the same level of education we undervalued, despite its overwhelming relevance to addressing unemployment and national skill gaps.

Another major hindrance to the real development of our educational system is the terrible governance and policy instability the country is exposed to. Over the years, since independence, we have been exposed to inconsistent education policies from one administration to another. The country has been totally denied the opportunity of long-term planning for the sector. Despite the challenge of this inconsistency, we also have to deal with bureaucratic inefficiency that is marred again by gross corruption within the entire education ministries and agencies which obstruct effective implementations of policies.

We run an educational system where research and innovation are literally paid lip service to; they are not the priority of the system. Projects and thesis work are mere necessities that have been relegated to the background, so much that they are done anyhow without adding to knowledge and it is acceptable. No wonder, our universities produce little globally impactful research outputs, because we lack the foundational desire for it, the funding is either not there or it is mismanaged, while the facilities are largely inadequate. Summarily, we say our universities are a neglected species. It is only here in Nigeria that the need for industry linkage with institutions of learning is toyed with; there is little to none partnership between the academia and the industry, so innovations are rarely commercialised or lead to problem-solving in nature.

Another factor, though cultural and attitudinal, is that we are so reluctant and highly resistant to technological integration. Our system is such that learners, and even tutors, lack access to digital devices, the internet and ICT facility. We have continued to stick to our chalk-and-talk method, ignoring e-learning, blended learning, and AI-driven tools that define modern education globally.

 We can conclusively submit that the Nigerian educational system is hampered by a foundational structure that is outdated, underfunded, and misaligned with global realities. It is now, and has proven to be incapable of addressing global challenges; such as automation, climate change, and globalisation. We have no option but to immediately and effectively revamp our curricula for relevance, invest strategically in education infrastructure, teacher quality and digital tools, build a broad base that foster research, innovation and vocational education, while we commit to equity, accountability and evidence-based policies in the critical sector.

We must know that without radical and sustained reforms, Nigeria risks continued educational decline and economic marginalisation. But with strategic investment, collaboration, and vision, we can build an educational system that not only meets global standards but shapes the global future.