University education in Nigeria is almost something laughable as a result of both the physical and mental state of the school system. Everyone just wants to get into the university so they can grab a certificate at the end of four or five years. Each passing year, more and more youth battle it out for limited spots in the higher institutions but it still feels the country is moving backward educationally.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) data reflect that 11,703,709 applications were received between 2010 and 2016. “In 2010, a total of 1,513,940 applications were received while 423,531 students were admitted. Similarly, the report stated that 1,636,356 applications were received while 417,341 students were admitted in 2011. NBS also reports that 1,632,835 applications were received in 2012, while 447,176 admissions were granted in 2012, representing 27 per cent of applications for admissions during the year. “The lowest percentages of applications for admissions were recorded in 2013 and 2014 with 24 per cent and 25 per cent of applications for admissions recorded, respectively. In 2015, 30 per cent of applications for admissions recorded, while in 2017, 1.7m applications were received and 850,000 admissions gained. This is the record so far, millions try to get into the system each year like it is some sought of saving grace only to get there and realize it’s a disaster, many go into the system and then actually come out worse than they entered. While those with high endurance and strength strife and come out with great success.
University education in Nigeria seems like such a tedious process considering the uncertainties that surround it. Ranging from regular strike actions to crowded lecture hall including unbearable hall of residence. How we have grown immunity to all the discomfort and irregularities in system still bemuses me. Every four years, all the public officials seeking election or re-election into public offices come and promise to restructure this system but yet deterioration is the order of the day.
Since the universities are so crowded, we would have had alternative solutions in vocational schools, but that is not the case. The society has been programmed such that if you do not hold a university degree then you are automatically an illiterate. Which is not supposed to be so since education is not the confinement of individuals to the four walls of a particular building, but rather a process of acquiring an unambiguously combined knowledge through learning and experience. What we actually have in the nation today is particularly the opposite of education.
The government has failed us no doubt but this should be a wakeup call to all stake holders, we must take stringent measures to restructure our educational system. Personally, I believe education is and should be the building block for any country either developed or developing, no doubt, our present state as a country is the total internal and external reflection of our educational system.
The present administration has been sounding and claiming restructuring for some time now, but note, restructuring a country like Nigeria starts right from our head, the government and the people old and young all need to wash their heads of cocksure and ancient ideologies. The way things were done in the 70s when the population of Nigeria was about 55,981,400 people cannot be same method applied today where the population is over 195,875,237 people. Other societies have moved far ahead, why we are still using ancient methods for the current generation is a question I am yet to find an answer to. Let’s find a common ground and share similarly fresh ideologies which are applicable to modern problems. When the national Ideology is settled, the next phase of restructuring should focus on education because if education is properly served, it becomes a balanced diet that helps every other sector get restructured. Education should and must get the highest allocation in the national budget not what we have been witnessing like in the case of the 2018 national budget where 7.04% of the N8.6 trillion was budgeted to education, Nigeria’s education sector was actually allocated much lower than the 26 percent of national budget recommended by the United Nations. The global organization recommended the budgetary benchmark to enable nations adequately cater for rising education demands. We have for too long joked with the much pressing need for a better form of education in this country. It is time enough that we awake from our on opinionated way of viewing education. Enough talk, let’s get to work and move ahead.
By: saviour_Spoken
