PLIGHTS OF NIGERIAN EDUCATION

 The several deficiencies that rock the educational sector is very palpable and yet, authorities turn their back against it leaving the affected to face it. The Nigerian university which is an institution for learning is a platform of success and not a true test of one’s ability.

Education is an act of training the mind, character and the ability to teach and be thought. It can be described as a major source of civilization and development. As stated, education is usually a way, mode or method through which knowledge is passed on from generation to generation. In order words, education is a form of resolution and evolution.

            In Nigeria today, education suffers several deficiencies. The Nigerian educational sector is faced with a number of challenges or problems which includes lack of access, low discipline, and inadequate funding.

            There are several Nigerian children who ought to be school but still roam about the street. They are not in school due to one challenge or the other. The major problem in the eastern part of the country is that the male children usually leave school giving economic problem as excuse. The male children in this part of the country give up education for vocation and this has been a problem in the eastern part of the country. In the northern part of the country, the female children drop out of school to get married and start up a family of their own. Early marriage has been a major setback for these female children and it is a factor that deprives the female children of education. According to statistics there are more educated male children than female children in the northern part of Nigeria.

An intractable challenge in the Nigerian educational system is indiscipline. Indiscipline manifest in areas like, educational malpractice, secret cult menace, unprotected sex, unwanted pregnancy, bribery and corruption.

These problems have drifted many people away from schools as people now search for greener pastures in other sector of the country’s economy or outside the country. Primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are grossly underfunded and this is very apparent on the degree of dilapidation that characterizes their buildings and teaching equipment.

 Teachers embark on strike whenever promises made by the government to improve the status of education are not implemented. It has also been argued that financial mismanagement and lack of accountability by officials lead to diverting substantial resources from the educational institution to other end.

            As a matter of fact the Nigerian education sector is heading for the rocks and need intervention of the government and her citizens. The government must apportion more funds to the educational sector and there will be a need for responsible and proper management of funds. Although the western educational tradition has remained the most functional in Nigeria’s educational history and there have been remarkable development in the nation’s educational system at all levels despite the problems that have continued to plaque education in the country. I believe that Nigerian educational sector will be admonished as steadfast if further improvements are made.
                                                                                                                         BY TIAMIYU HASSAN