IS EDUCATION STILL A PRIORITY IN NIGERIA?

In Nigeria, there is a relationship between corruption and lack of infrastructural development, modernization and rehabilitation; but the former metamorphosed into the latter. For instance, in the 1960s, 1970s and 80s when sanity was still in place, educational bureaucrats were well committed to educating the total child. The quality of education at that time was very high thereby enabling Nigerian students to compete with the world.

Educators at the aforementioned decades maintained very high educational standards, with the educational system of that time, students with high academic reputation gained admission into the university of their choice. This was in progress until the ‘cabals’ interference into the educational sector resulted in the corrupt practices that engulfed educational sector till today.

This led to changing of the educational administrators with different policies as different government came to political offices with the changing of government either through election or selection as the case maybe, Government not releasing enough funds and embezzling of the little released by ‘the powers that be’ and some other stakeholders in our higher institution of learning.

During the 1960s, 1970s and 80s, there was nothing like indigenes cut-off mark for admission consideration, but it started when nepotism crept in. Still Nigeria is one is the song we hear from our leaders. By so doing education that was considered to be the cornerstone for the development of Nigeria was ignored, neglected and starved of necessary funds and policy initiatives needed to move it forward.

Increasingly, National and State governments started cutting educational funds, thereby creating the impression that education was no longer an important strategic tool in directing the country’s growth. With this development, the looting of educational funds became acceptable. Thus politicians began to loot money allocated to take care of educational sector such as buildings for schools, infrastructural development, modernisation and rehabilitation of educational institutions and so on.

Countrymen, after the milking and sucking of educational funds into their unpatriotic belly, the educational system of the country became useless.  Since they can afford to send their children to different developed countries of the world to receive western education, they care not if you and I learn under mango trees and dilapidated classrooms. No wonder they no longer have confidence in the country’s professionals and prefer travelling to India to get medical attention while the electorate die every minute in our drugless hospitals across the nations.

Let me conclude that the latest public statement made by our presidents concerning educational sector, that 50 thousand graduates would be employed into the educational sector irrespective of their area of discipline (that generated a lot of reactions from Nigerians) shouldn’t amaze you and I because they no longer consider the country’s educational sector as a priority.