Still on Education in Nigeria -By Omar Muaz

Nigeria’s system of education was well planned and organized. Among the three principles took to guide the decision on the pattern of education in Nigeria was the necessity of narrowing the gap between educational opportunities in the North and the South and among the children of the rich and the children of the poor until the recent Jeopardy of the system. So, there’s the need to equalize the gap between education for the rich and the poor.

There’s this universal belief that education can help to produce a certain type of social order by teaching literacy skills, moral behavior and citizenship skills. It’s also irrefutable that it’s the responsibility of the government to provide an education for the poor children and to train them to be productive, useful citizens and to teach them to be civilized and cultured.

When the school segregation occurred in the United State of America around 1954, the children of the blacks, as they enjoyed lesser education privilege than the children of the whites, felt inferior and that emotion destroyed their motivation for learning. A court was forced to look at the issue a massive campaign held by the associations as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] challenging the segregation.

Although, there were challenges faced in the process when some parents objected to having their children attend the same schools with the black children, they found a way to get around the law by setting geographic boundaries which was known as “de fecto segregation.” There was still a positive result with the passage of Civil Rights Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Acts [ESEA] in the 1960s. If that could work in the United States of America, Nigeria is no exception. There should be National associations to challenge the inequality of the gap between the education of the poor children and the rich children in the country.

Funding schools or funding education is also a point to be viewed. Schools in Nigeria lack resources including chalk, papers and books. Schools with inadequate funding may lack computers and internet access. With so many jobs today at least requiring rudimentary competence in the computer, students who attend these schools – public schools to be precise – and infrequently use computers are not obtaining the education that ‘ll lead them to well-paying jobs. Furthermore, many jobs today require training in technology which low-skilled graduates may lack.

The status of teaching on the socio-economic scale in Nigeria is still low. For instance, the teacher salaries in Nigeria shows no improvement months in months out. The public schools are chattered and the teachers’ welfare is almost alarming in almost every state of the federation. There’s this overruled for political reasons; eventually, for lack of funds, the payment of salaries of teachers is being delayed and some are not even paid at all. As a result, too much of strikes come to strangulate our education.

Omar Muaz, muazuumar45@gmail.com