By Uche Mbah
The Nigerian education system appears to be at the evening of its glory judging from the level of graduates churned out by the institutions of higher and other learning in the country, The Source can now conclude..
Besides government neglect through budgeting and other educational indices, incessant strikes, decaying infrastructure and outdated study aids appear to be on the front burner of the plagues bedeviling the system.
Last Tuesday a Reuters study indicated that African countries have lost the competitive edge in international job auction due mainly to poor graduates they churn out every year.
Though the report indicts low enrollment for the dismal outlook the quality of graduates appear to be of more worry for the continent. And more and more erudite scholars are leaving the shores of Nigeria with a few leaving the government Universities to private ones. Even academic excellence is compromised. Professors are appointed through regional quota and pecuniary considerations.
” I remember a professor of a Federal University that was appointed because a traditional ruler prevailed on the university to appoint him because he is one of ‘our people’. And this is in a sensitive course like medicine”, a retired professor told this magazine.
“When it comes to education, really we have a problem,” Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese Tycoon who sponsored the Reuters report on African youths and education, told Reuters. “When you look at the demographics, and you look at the economic growth, you see that we’re actually falling behind.”
Nigeria is usually called the giant of Africa, but has lost key indices of development in the last four years to Rwanda, South Africa and Ghana.
It has become commonplace to find University graduates who could not express themselves correctly. Only recently the National Youth Service Corps lamented the low standard of graduates coming for their scheme.
“If Nigeria must get to her height as far as educational attainment is concerned, even by United Nation’s average, we are not where, we should be. We are deteriorating; we hope that education with all the importance attaches to it will not collapse.” says The Head of Department, Commercial and Industrial Law in the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Hon Jake Otu Enya, while commenting on the budgetary allocation to education in the 2020 budget. Government had budgeted N48 billion for education while budgeting N149 billion for the feeding of the President and Vice President.
No Federal University in Nigeria has an updated Library, and professors still use lecture notes prepared for the nineteen seventies to teach in 2029, according to findings.
It appears that with the Buhari administration, Book is actually haram”, says a Lagos State University Lecturer that does not want to be named. “By the time this government finishes with us we will all become alimajiris. After all, none of the children of the ruling elites school in Nigeria.”
