Education in Nigeria: The Bane of National Development -By Sa’adatu Saleh

Education is defined as the processes by which a child or young adult develops abilities, attitudes, skills and other forms of behaviours which are of positive value to the society in which he lives” .
The educational sector in Nigeria has been lampooned due to its inability to contribute to the national development of the country. As a result, this essay has been written to unveil some of the major problems facing educational sector in Nigeria which has resulted to the bane of national development and also profer possible remedies.
The most prominent problem facing educational sector in Nigeria is corruption. This ranges from secondary school level, where students pay huge sum of money to get examination answers or be taught during exams to tertiary incorruption where students bribe lecturers to pass examinations. In the same vein, funds meant to be used to pay salaries of workers in the educational sector are being embezzled by corrupt political office holders and their cronies.

Another contributory factor to this tragic-drama is poor parenting and guidance. Most parents are instrumental here by ensuring that their children excel in examinations irrespective of the means. This lack of proper guidance from parents usually leads to encouragement on the children’s part to engage in exams malpractices. Also, there have been cases of parents following their children to school to fight or harras teachers. Nowadays, a teacher can neither caution nor punish a student without seeing the parents’ sword; this usually gives the child the liberty to misbehave and totally disregard his studies.

Lack of infrastructure also poses a serious threat to the development of educational sector. Many schools in Nigeria have collapsed due to poor educational infrastructures. Majority of the educational facilities from the public to the privately schools are not conducive for learning. Libraries are usually not available, and where there are, the books are either outdated or in bad state.
Lackadaisical attitude of the government to teachers’ welfare also contributes to this traumatic situation. It is evident that over the years, teachers have been on one strike action or the other due to lack of payment of teachers’ salaries and gratuities. Due to the poor welfare packages for teachers, some of them have to seek other means to augment their incomes which ultimately affects their delivery level in the class.

The nonchalant attitudes of most teachers to work is the last straw that breaks the camel’s back! Most teachers are perpetual in truancy; they either come to school late or do not come at all. The effect is that in most cases, the scheme of work is not covered.
The aforementioned problems are not natural; they are man-made and can be solved by man.

The genesis of all these problems is funding because with adequate funding, there would surely be qualitative learning facilities. Renovation of schools and provision of other infrastructures to ensure conducive learning for students will also be there. Funds should also be properly managed to avoid embezzlement by corrupt political office holders. Thus, with adequate funds on ground, teachers welfare would be given utmost consideration. Not only that, teachers’ salary-scale should commensurate that of their counterparts in other juicy sectors.

In the same vein, parents should be enlightened on the dangers of poor parenting and guidance. They should be made to understand that guiding the child constantly is an important part of child training which may involve some punishment provided that such punishment is applied with caution.

To sum it up, there is no doubt that the standard of education in any country plays a vital role in determining the class of individuals that country produces as its citizens who will represent her locally and internationally. Our country’s falling educational standard indicates grave danger for the supposed leaders of tomorrow. Therefore, all hands must be on deck to ensure that the lost glory of education in Nigeria is revived.