Quality of Education in Nigeria: The Promises of a Bleak Future -By Sumayya Al’ameen

The quote of the former American president, Malcolm X, remains fresh and green in my life. He stated thus: “Education is the passport to the future; for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”. Education is the process of teaching, training or learning; especially in schools or institutions. In a more realistic way, education is the only and biggest asset without any depreciation in the balance sheet of life.So, why does this asset still promise us a bleak future in our dear country Nigeria?

According to the World Economic Forum (2017), Nigeria ranked 124th out of 137 countries in terms of quality of primary education. Nigeria was also missing among the top 10 African countries with the best education system. How could that be proper for a country like Nigeria, which is known to be the giant of Africa?

This education is supposed to be the key to success every student sights in their future. Unfortunately, the future is not promising with this kind of educational quality we witness in our basic, secondary and tertiary schools in our country today. Instead of sighting society of champions who are ever ready to explore new things, we are sighting a society of illiterates who will aid in the destruction of their country. Imagine having patients in the hands of roughly qualified doctors, constructions in the hands of roughly qualified engineers and students in the hands of roughly qualified teachers!

The quality of education in Nigeria descends to the level that certain groups of people, mostly less privileged, are affected by the educational system crisis than others. Come to think of it, children in rural areas are worse than their counterparts in urban areas despite coming from the same country.

Nigerian education also got to the level that despite the efforts of the government, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and international donors towards addressing the challenges facing it, some obstacles continue to hinder the implementation of such efforts and interventions.

Funding seems to be the major challenge troubling the quality of education in Nigeria which happens to be the usual reason for almost every strike in higher institutions as well as the reason for the inconsistency of primary and secondary schools teachers in class and other sensitive academic activities.

More so, some parents are not helping matters, hence, they aid their children in exam malpractice, inconsistency, disrespect for their teachers and are not willing to pay their ward school fees.

Education is the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. This is meant to tell you that our future lies in our hands; however, unless we plan something good and better, we shall never achieve something better. Government should therefore priorities education for our betterment. Parents should also do their best in paying school fees, they should also provide learning materials for their kids.