Revitalizing The Basic Education In Northern Nigeria -By Abubakar Adamu

The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu lamented that massive investments in the nation’s basic education sector have not translated into desired results.

It is the glory of a nation to have an effective and productive educational system. Basic education is the bedrock of the society. Hence the need to actively give out the best towards ensuring its sustainability.

An article by Statista mentions that in 2018/2019, around 7.4 million students were enrolled in lower secondary education schools. The age for junior secondary education in Nigeria is 12 to 14 years. In 2019, the total number of students in both private and public schools was approximately 4.9 million.
Apparently, based on statistics, the basic education is the level of education that has the highest number of enrolled students. It is very much available to everyone and can be afforded to all irrespective of societal class, gender, race or other affiliations.

UNICEF reports around 18.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria. It is a significant rise compared to a figure of 10.5 million recorded in 2021. UNICEF also states that one out of five children from Nigeria do not attend school. This resonates the need for the government at all levels to give in their all towards reaching out to the pupils, privileged to make it to the four walls of the basic education institutions.

The Minister said the investment so far in education is extremely commendable but the output is not commensurate, not matching the input, therefore they need to do something about that. He further stated that “It is really disheartening that despite the Federal Government’s huge investment, interventions and technical support, the basic education sub-sector is still bedevilled by these unpleasant occurrences: learners sitting on bare floors, high rate of drop-outs, increased number of out-of-school children, poor infrastructure, dilapidated classroom buildings, inadequate learning facilities, unqualified teachers, inadequate monitoring, inequitable access and low learning outcomes which have resulted to the falling standard of education in our country.

In response to this challenges, the Minister said “The SUBEB chairmen must also ensure that every child in their respective state benefits from the free, universal and compulsory basic education, regardless of sex, ethnic or religious backgrounds, language or status as this will reduce the out-of-school children syndrome,” he said.
According to UNICEF, In the North, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 percent. Gender, like geography and poverty, is an important factor in the pattern of educational marginalization. States in the north-east and north-west have female primary net attendance rates of 47.7 percent and 47.3 percent, respectively, meaning that more than half of the girls are not in school.

The education deprivation in northern Nigeria is driven by various factors, such as economic barriers, religious, socio-cultural norms and practices that discourage attendance in formal education, especially for girls.
The activities of insurgents has also contributed greatly to this phenomenon.
Hence the need for new strategies and collaborative efforts between the federal and state governments to address the identified problems so as to ensure that basic education in Nigeria yields rich results.

Written by Abubakar Adamu from Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri.