By Abstract
Egalitarian and standardized educational system that could guarantee equity and justice in Nigeria have seemingly remain a far cry, with constant fallacy of begging the question. Such lofty dreams have been impinged upon by inimical indices such as deregulation, privatization, Commercialization and poor funding of educational sector in the country. Qualitative education globally, stands out as a formidable key to socio-political and economic development. Education especially at the tertiary levels is designed to train and equip learners with desirable skills that could enable its recipients’ function creditably in response to societal yearnings and aspirations. It is in recognition of such indispensable needs of education with its attendant gains, that every meaningful and sensible nation hold the need of having her citizenry educated, close to heart. However, nations that undermine the all importance role of qualitative education, risk the chances of meaningful growth and development. Nigeria, from our founding fathers treasured the gains of education, and enshrined it not only in the constitution of the country but also developed a national policy on education as a blueprint, and operational matrix for both government and educational operators. Perhaps they envisaged that a time like this will come where the nation will down play on the educational standard of her subjects. This paper therefore, aims at entrenching the imperatives of the National Policy on Education objectives as a mission to achieving the attainment of equal opportunity for all citizenry, development of manpower in all ramifications as a bridge – end to meaningful growth and development. Qualitative education was intended to negate tribalism, inequality, injustice, exploitation, subjugation, nepotism and the likes capable of resulting in corruption, retrogression and negative trajectory. Lucid understanding of the aims/objectives of National Policy on Education, would have possibly trumpeted the Nation Nigeria to the comity of Nations where education would have possibly be seen as a money spinner, and an index for individual and National revamping mechanism. But sadly, like the sayings of Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart, deregulation, privatization, commercialization, politicization and poor funding of the nations educational system could be likened to the bane to our education. Indeed, the seeming “white man’s knife” puts on the things that held us together and we have now fallen not only apart but into shreds. This conference would not have come at any time better than now of bemoaning the broken, disheartening and inhabitable educational system; also, that the glamour for resilience and sincere yearnings for building a strong and dependable educational system with a stronger advocacy unto posterity, and a clarion call to quit era of folding of arms and do nothing. If this is the position of everyone in this conference, then, you are all welcome. Otherwise, posterity may not forgive us. Hence, the urgent need for us all to retreat to the
drawing board sincerely and objectively devoid of lip service, re-examine our goals and objectives in line with global educational best practice and “fight” with the last strength in us perhaps even following Esther’s dictum if we perish, we perish. The time for this radical approach, is now.
Keywords: Deregulation, Commercialization, Educational Imbalance, National Development
Introduction
Nigeria, like other nations of the world accepted formal education on the advent of Europeans. The zeal for formal education increased over years and of recent, emphasis is on tertiary education because of the basic benefits achievable from tertiary education. Tertiary education serves as a tool or means for social, economic, development and transformation. It also enhances higher level of workforce, managerially and technologically. Tertiary systems of education are generally, aimed at meeting modern social, economic and political needs. Tertiary education provides special kind of education and training for special needs in the society. This is possible because of its insistence of increased research activities for improved contribution to public awareness, knowledge and development. Ruqayyatu Amed Rufai, in a paper. National Policy on Education (formulated in the early 1970s), holds that, “this is a document that was originally informed by the need to provide access to education for all Nigerians, regardless of the social class or region. It aimed to improve the quality of education in Nigeria” (www.entoday .com/rational policy…). The basic objectives of the policy include, increase primary school’s enrolment rate, improving teachers’ training and educational infrastructure, expanding access to secondary and tertiary education. Although the policy was revised, the above stated objectives were retained and a number of new objectives were added, namely: increase access to early childhood education, improving education, improving literacy levels and promoting vocational and technical training. The revised policy also provided room for the use of technology in education to ensure that all Nigeria students have access to computers and the internet by 2020.
National Policy on Education: The Implementation Challenge.
This policy on education became the blue-print upon which the nation education builds. It could be observed that prior to 1977, Nigeria operated an educational policy inherited from Britain prior to Independence. However, given one inadequacy or the other, National Educational Research and Development Council kept reviewing the policy in pursuit of the desire to attain National Development Plan aimed at building:
-a free and democratic society;
– a just and egalitarian society;
-a United strong and self-reliant nation;
-a great and dynamic economy;
– a land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens (FRN, 1998).
Despite the above objectives, implementation so far left us with little to be desired. Efforts have been made to develop education in Nigeria since independence in 1960. Such efforts notwithstanding, the state of education is still deplorable. Most prominent Nigerians that would have possibly lend their voices to building a dependable educational system for Nigerians, prefer sending their children to Europe, America, South Africa and even to small countries like Ghana, Cameroun, Niger Republic, etc. It could be argued by most noble minds that when Nigeria is addressed as the Giant of Africa, it hits hard on many, as derogatory because though with the rich endowment, about 80% Nigerians live below the poverty line of $1 per day. The national policy on education objectives of building a free and democratic society; a just and egalitarian society, a united strong and self-reliant nation, a great and dynamic economy, and to build a land of bright and full opportunities for all citizens is sophistry, an illusion, deceptive, an empty chanting, worst still, a vocal emission, either due to lack of political will to drive full implementation of humane policies or corruption, greed and lots more.
Hoghes (26) noted Nigeria development failure to have sprung from lack of success in achieving an effective model of governance resulting from instability, generated by rivalry for control of huge resources accruing to the state from oil industry, and the negative use of political power to milk the state for personal gain rather than promote economic and social development. Again, most policies died on arrival because of political instability which often than not, stalled policies implementation. On corruption, if anything has contributed to stagnation of corporate development of Nigeria, it is corruption. This “virus” has placed our country on the path of negative prominence on the global space. Corruption perception index ranked Nigeria as the third most corrupt countries in the World. In 2003, the watch dog on global corruption ranked Nigeria as the second most corrupt countries in the world (Adesina (16). One could readily bemoan a deplorable state of the nation educational sector being corroded by the “venom” of corrupt practices. Despite enormous oil and gas wealth at the disposal of the country, basic things of life to include food, shelter, portable water, electricity, good road and education etc, have long eluded us. Corruption has as well stagnated the development of education in Nigeria. The designers of national policies from all intent and purposes were visionary and should be applauded. The objectives of most policies in this country are often derailed at the implementation stage duly to;
1. Cupidity of our lawmakers.
2. Reluctance to release funds for implementation by the executive arm of government.
3. If funds are eventually released, they are grossly inadequate.
It could be emphasized that, the essence of rigorous articulation lies in advocacy rather speaking of grammar. Let us objectify this problem and create a propelling advocacy to gain positive change.
Challenges to Education in Nigeria
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” – Benjamin Franklin
“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation” – Walter Cronkite.
Deregulation
Deregulation is against these two important quotes. Deregulation can be seen as an economic reform, a fiscal monitory policy measure in which laws or rules of entry and exit into the market are weakened, relaxed or totally removed in order to enhance the competitiveness of economic actors (http://www.researchgate.net.July 2023) it was introduced in Nigeria when Nigeria was no longer able to handle her financial indebtedness to International Monetary Fund (IMF). One of the conditionalities of IMF was for Nigeria to deregulate the system including education. In 1985, an 11- person technical committee on commercialization was inaugurated. “As part of the recommendation to government from International Monetary Fund and an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now World Bank) was the rationalization and privatization of public enterprises to encourage competition through liberation and deregulation” (http://www.researchgate.net.3, July, 2013). Deregulation actually became effective when there were increased need and demand on education system due to growth, economic and social necessities (http://www.researchgate.net.3, July, 2023). Deregulation of education can be described as “a sale of knowledge to the highest bidder, which has the effect of lowering standards for the attraction of customers” (http://www.researchgate.net. 2023). With deregulation, education has become a private and money-making venture. Education in the face of deregulation in Nigeria is in the hands of individuals or groups who invest and are out to maximize profits to the detriment of children of low-income parents. This has stifled the access to education by all citizens. Thus, exposes children and schools, especially public schools to struggle for survival in the face of competition. Deregulation of education enhances privatization and commercialization which greatly affects funding and accessibility. This in turn affects equality and quality. Because of the gains of deregulation in terms of profit maximization, more private and public universities have been established and more applications are to be approved. Many students have dropped out of schools, due to high school charges. Deregulation killed education subsidy, bursary awards, scholarships and loan schemes. One of the off-shoot of deregulation is commercialization.
Commercialization
Commercialization of education offers education services for profits or gains. Schools operates as money or profits making ventures or institutions. On the bases of this, the government expects public schools to survive without any subvention, yet expecting the same quality, equality and efficiency. How possible is it?
Commercialization is the process at which government makes tertiary education a profitable business or profit making institutions (http://www. researchgate.net2023). Schools owners demonstrate without constrain or censorship, their capitalists attitudes to the death of all the inclusion of the benefits to citizens in the National Policy on Education. Another component of deregulation is privatization.
Privatization
Privatization is more or less transfer of ownership of property or enterprise from one person, group of persons or government to other individuals or agencies. Privatization is also a capitalist and materialistic approach to maximize profits. Public (government) ventures attract the enjoyment of social facilities or amenities. The desire to privatize is to maximize profits.
Commercialization and privatization, as the main components of deregulation do not seem to have clear-out distinction. They both suffocate government responsibilities to the citizens to death. The concepts wherever and whenever implemented, do not and cannot afford anyone or society the opportunity to enjoy or access government social amenities freely.
Education for National Development
Development is indeed, multifaceted in meaning and multidimensional in content. It concerns itself with the all-round development of the human person. In fact, investment in education directs to human capital development that could be seen as paradigmatic, and fundamental to every meaningful growth and development. It has severally been argued that, since education is geared towards training of the learner to acquire useful and meaningful skills that are in line with societal needs and aspirations, it is therefore sure that education will equip learners to acquire such desirable skills that could result in: increase productivity, develop talents and desired work ethics, develop right and seasoned personnel, develop competence to harness qualitative integration of resources for social and national development.
National development is directly attached to the quality and standard of education of any society. The development of human capacity is the bedrock of national development. The death of quality and equality in Nigeria education system has affected National development. This can be explained in the light of the fact that, many students from low income families cannot afford the high cost of education in Nigeria and it should be noted that there are brilliant and bright children from poor families who are not given any opportunity to kindle the ability in them for their contribution to national development.
The importance of investment in education cannot be overemphasized. Although in 1944, when the World Bank was first established, education was not included among the productive purposes for which it was saddled to execute. The bank concentrated its lending on projects designed to make a direct contribution to the productive capacity of its members, and not to finance projects such as the construction and equipment of Schools, Colleges and Universities. The bank undermined education as essential to the development of a country. However, there was a paradigm shift in 1960 to the economic value of education, described by Bowman as the “human investment revolution in economic thought” (scholar.google.com).
According to Psacharapoulos and Woodhall (1993), “Before long, economist were trying to measure the contribution of education to economic growth (Schultz1961, 1963; Denison, 1962, 1967; 1968), and many were examining the concept of investment in human capital (Becker, 1964, 1975). (scholar.google.com). based on the above, governments, planners, international agencies, and educators throughout the world, and Nigeria was not on exception, were influenced in favour of education. The failure to consider the significance of education in national development had slowed down the investment attitude in education and consequently, slowed down development. The Nigeria case was worsened by the introduction of deregulation, commercialization and privatization. Corruption in Nigeria alongside the above, remain the greatest barrier to the nation’s aspirations, pursuit and realization towards human capacity building for national development.
In the light of the above, no nation can experience remarkable national development outside education. Hence, national development is attached to human capacity building and national capacity building is achieved through meaningful investment in education. Nigeria is yet to reap the objectives of National Policy on Education. This means failure to produce human capacity. This is a result of poor funding of education which has resulted in fallen standard, strikes, brain drain and students’ dropout.
Human capacity building or education precedes all forms of development. Hence, human capacity or development, must be ensured if Nigeria is to be developed.
Qualitative education is a sure bet that could guarantee a seeming permanent change in human behavior that would in turn generate sufficient manpower to drive the nation’s economy away from degeneracy into self-sustaining one and from a consuming economy into a production economy.
Benefits of Proper Implementation of Education Policy
- Quality Education
- Quality Institutions
- Quality Staffing
- Quality Students
- Efficiency
- National Development
Suggestions for Improvement
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela.
Education is the fundamental means through which development can be achieved. Education improves the quality of human life. Education makes people to be humble for peaceful society. It also liberates the citizens and they can never be enslaved. It kindles a flame of the ability endowed in humans. This is why when the quality of human capacity or capital development is below expectations, the result is political instability, gangsterism, economic and social imbalance as well as social agitations.
In the light of a colossal damage caused on the educational system in Nigeria, and its attendant disruption on quality of the schools and the graduates, lack of academic and administrative autonomy of schools, necessitates urgent need for repairs. Some of the ways to repair the damaged educational system in Nigeria include:
- Return to and full implementation of the National Policy on Education in other to achieve the goals therein
- Revival of education sectors through proper funding by government
- Instant stoppage of implementation of deregulation, commercialization and privatization of education. Nigeria has many sources of income, namely oil, timber, cocoa, cold, tin, etc. which if properly harnessed, will be enough to fund education for optimal service delivery.
- Full autonomy of academic and administration be granted to institutions to admit qualified students, recruit qualified staff to ensure quality teaching and learning for efficiency.
- De politicization of education. All matters pertaining to education should be handled by qualified hands and not by people whose academics status are in doubt.
- Proper or heavy funding of education should be prioritized by government. Education is the liberating premise of progress and development anywhere in the world. So government should take over funding of education.
- Corruption had been inimical to the success of education in Nigeria. For progress to be made handlers of education with questionable characters should have nothing to do in the business of education. And all those who are identified as being corrupt should face the full wrath of the law of the land. Favoritism in the system supports corruption. Education should be devoid of corrupt people.
- Establishment of more schools should stop forthwith to be able to effectively carter for the existing ones. Private institutions of learning should be censored, academically and administratively. All their activities should be monitored.
- Monitoring and evaluations are important for assessment to determine whether or not there is progress in education.
Conclusion
The state of education in Nigeria has been very worrisome. There seem to be nothing wrong with the National Policy on Education. Many attempts have been made to right the wrongs but such attempts do not seem to yield the desired results as the standard is falling, low quality infrastructure, low quality and low number of staff and students, strikes by staff, brain drain, etc, directly affecting national development. It has been established that poor funding, deregulation, commercialization, privatization, politicization and corruption are some of the major challenges of education for national development in Nigeria. The way out is to return to full implementation of the national policy on education to achieve the intended goals of the policy. Funding of education should be the sole responsibility of the government. Academic and administrative autonomy should be given to schools devoid of the misinterpreted autonomy of funding by schools. Until there is access to education for all at all levels, there will be no remarkable human capacity building that can enhance national development.
Thank you for listening.
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