EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION 

Education is greatly misunderstood in Nigeria, that is why it is not producing effective or meaningful result, the way it ought to. Ideally, education should be the foundation or bedrock of sustainable development, but if the foundation laying is not paid adequate attention to, or overlooked, like what is playing out in Nigeria today, efforts made towards development will be amounted to a sinking sand, which lacks base, support and sustainability. In the previous post, "What Education Is Not!" which explicitly explains and mirrors exactly what is holding sway in Nigeria, in the name of education. It also exposes in details what Nigerians are running after, which is mainly not what education is all about. It is indeed a true reflection of how education has been misconstrued, Nigerians have left out the major and ignorantly pursuing the minor, hence the need for re-invention of the meaning and understanding of the subject, and re-orientation on what it is basically concerned with, so that Nigeria will begin to derive bountiful yields from the it. 

By education in Nigeria, it is referred to the system and state which education is, being in appalling and deplorable condition, needing critical intervention for optimal performance and productivity.

DEFINITION OF EDUCATION 

Though the concept of education may vary from people to people, place to place, and from time to time, as widely acknowledged by scholars. According to E. N. Etuk and others, in a book titled "Curriculum: The Basics of Planning and Implementation" the concept is seen generally as "The sum total of all the processes by which members of the society acquire the desired knowledge, skills, attitude, and other capabilities which enable them to live effectively and contribute positively to the development of the global community". Beyond socialization, which is quite pronounced and outstanding about education, it is also defined as the formation of character and the development of cognitive and mental capacity or prowess of a man, which enables members of the society to be responsible, civil and law-abiding, as well as possessing the capacity to be highly productive, because of their skilled labour status which is necessitated by developed cognitive capacity, and effectiveness in contributing  to the socio-economic development. For more insight on n the subject being discussed, refer to a related post titled "WHAT EDUCATION IS!"

THE STATE OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA 

The state or condition of education in Nigeria is unimpressive, basically as a result of government's lack of seriousness in responding to educational needs and wrong impression, misconception and poor attitude of Nigerians towards education. The resultant effect of these acts is the low yield or inefficient result it has been producing over the years. If the state of education in Nigeria has been producing significant result, the country would have achieved development long ago. The statement necessitates or buttress the fact that, there exists a significant relationship between education and development, while its ineffectiveness has led the country to a state of decay, decadence, corruption, immortality, incivility, underdevelopment, etc.

THE SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

This is concerned basically with the manner and method Nigeria is fashioning its educational system, which naturally ought to be distinct and tailored towards meeting or solving existing social needs. It involves the method of designing and implementing educational system in the country, cutting across curriculum design, standard and welfare of teachers, method of teaching, students' performance appraisal and examination system, etc. These items outlined above are what constitute the deplorable and dilapidated state of education in Nigeria. The chief among them being poor curriculum design on which many other items are anchored or inter-connected, if adequately addressed, can go along way in tackling the problems of Nigeria, because it ought to be dove-tailed or tailored towards existing needs of the country.

PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA 

1. Wrong Impression, Misconception and Poor Attitude of Nigerians Towards Education

Education in Nigeria is incapacitated, and lacks what it takes to produce meaningful result because of the poor attitude of Nigerians. They see or regard education from the perspective of poverty alleviaton and rich-quick programme, instead of seeing it, first and foremost, as a process of character formation and cognitive development needed to solve social problems. That is why many have passed through school, but the school did not pass through them - it is the reason there is high rate of graduates and low rate of educated graduates. This poor perception or attitude of Nigerians is the root cause of prevalent examination malpractices, because the paramount reason for going to school is to pass examination with flying colours, obtain or acquire impressive credentials or certificate that will give an edge in the labour market (employment opportunities), it is definitely what education is mainly not. Because education has failed in its responsibility of moulding and forming character, corruption and decadence have become the order of the day. This problem needs to be adequately addressed for education to become the bedrock of development in the Nigerian society.

2. Poor Curriculum Design 

The inability of government and the relevant stakeholders to dove-tail or tailor curriculum towards existing social realities, which will involve a need based pattern of education to effectively diagnose and provide prognosis to social problems in Nigeria. That total disconnect and absence of school curriculum speaking to the needs of the country, is the issue that if well addressed, can reposition the country's educational system to be a need based system, instead of being just a conventional system for socializing same old idea.

3. Uniformity in the System of Education 

Unequivocally, education varies from people to people, place to place, and time to time, since Nigeria is a multi-diverse, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, plural and heterozygous society, having uniformity in the system of education is a complete counter-productive. This is why education in the country is not yielding desired and effective result. If the country succeeds in practicing ideal federalism, which according to K. C. Where "...the general and the regional governments are each, within a sphere, coordinate and independent", where the regions (states) will have self-rule that will enable them legislate on educational matters and design their various curriculums in a manner that is unique and peculiar to their local needs and aspirations, independent of the general government, and also share rules with them (Federal Government), on mostly internationally related issues or items such as the immigration, customs, economy, foreign affairs, defence, etc., education in Nigeria would certainly be productive. What the country has presently, is a superimposed system, which is absolutely a misnomer.

4. Colonial Heritage 

Nigeria is yet to completely purged itself from the colonial system of education handed down from independence in 1960. The system which is dove-tailed towards secretariat and office employment known as 'white collar job' has become outdated and old-fashion. That attitude exhibiting by Nigerians is not in tandem with the prevailing reality in the country, given the pronounced change in the socio-economic culture of country. Now, the way forward or the new way of thinking and doing things vis-a-vis employment and means of livelihood (MOL) is entrepreneurship and self-employment. Unfortunately, our educational systems and specifically the curriculum, is not dove-tailed or tailored towards this new socio-economic reaity. Therefore, change in the attitude of Nigerians is quite imperative in order to come to terms with the fact that, aside from 'white collar jobs', there is existence of 'other collar jobs', it could be blue, green, yellow, brown, black, etc. which they must key in, by discarding the colonial heritage or attitude, in terms of the educational culture in the country.

5. Leadership Gaps/Policy Inconsistency 

To have significant breakthrough in education, Nigeria must solve its leadership gap, which is also a factor of policy inconsistency. The country is in serious need of leaders (especially during this election cycle, as events are building up towards the 2027 General Elections - with redemption and emancipation expectation in sight for citizens to mainstream) who are visionary, service delivery minded, and have the foresight in interpreting programmes, being in terms with prevailing realities, in order to guarantee sustainability which is the hallmark of policy consistency. Bringing this into existence is a sure way of ensuring that effectsive leadership can considerably contribute in solving the myriad of problems facing education in Nigeria.

THE WAY FORWARD ON EDUCATION IN NIGERIA 

The way forward to solving the problems of education in Nigeria is to redefine, reinvent and fine-tune the meaning and understanding of education, to completely erase the misconception and wrong impression, in order to mitigate the poor attitude of Nigerians on what education is not!, by dove-tailing it with, or to reflect the existing social realities, in a manner which will instigate attitudinal re-orientation, for high efficiency and productivity, against the backdrop of this current state which the result is counter-productive, as it is not sufficiently solving the country's problems and not also leading it on the path of development, the way it ought to.