Before delving into the issue on ground, it is pertinent to note that Nigeria is a landscape that is endowed with deluge of resources varying from natural, environmental, intellectual and human resources. Despite all what seem to be divine endowments, it is disheartening to pin-point that the polity is a human abattoir where carnage feasts; a vegetation where corruption breeds; a treasury where tyrants feed and a massy land where development is crippled. The role of education in the development of any nation is not a debate that command subjectivity. It is a legacy which a nation can bequeath on its budding generations; a bulwark against stagnation and; a veritable tool that propels social transformation and egalitarianism. The question that would pervade the curious mind of any perturbed Nigerians is; who bears the burden? Can we attribute it to the lackadaisical attitude of our government or the parents and students. Lets now explore the world of reality.
Analyzing the situation critically, it is obvious that the primary education which serves as the bedrock or foundation to which other stand is not well erected and there is the general conception that where the foundation of a building is not well erected, there is the tendency of an imminent collapse. From this analysis, I think the issue of fallen standard of education has its genesis from the primary education. Gone were the days when education has value owing to the result-oriented gesture launched by the then government. Drinking from the reservoir of history, it was traced that the government of Awolowo introduced free education at both primary and secondary level. at the realm of happenings, there are plethora of instances where pupils in primary six could not spell a word talk less of writing it down. These blames shouldn’t be attributed to the Government alone but also to the entirety of the society due to the roles that some parents play towards their wards. Some parents focus majorly on worldly things such as business career and frivolities at the expense of their children; the children that falls into this kind of household are liable to psychological and emotional trauma that greatly affect their academics. In addition, at the secondary school level, the situation has worsened to the extent that technology is a demi-god that has greatly obsessed the minds of secondary school students, you will come by a situation where students would be chatting on-line via different social media at the expense of reading their books. Research has it that about 96% of secondary school students in Nigeria are users of Facebook; which is a development that placed adversity on the standard of education. There occurs cases of students pinging during class hour which is as a result of emerging technology spreading across the globe, in such an incidence like this, of what academic performance do you envisage of such students. Aside from the blame on the part of students, some teachers are biased lazy towards their roles in educating the students. There are several instances where some teachers come to class occasionally to teach owing to some factor such as indolence, poor remuneration, remoteness of the school location and other factors. There are also incessant cases of exam malpractice which is also an adversity constituting in poor quality of education in the country, who bears the blame, it is nobody but the students, the parents, the government and the society at large. Going by the standard of the tertiary institution in Nigeria, it is nothing but a lost glory, in the sense that halfly of the graduates we produce are half baked with low level of pragmatism. University education in Nigeria is known to be purely academic and research-based which is the major factor responsible for its ineptitude. Undergraduates are subjected to more theoretical aspects of training compare to practical. For instance, sketch an episode where a university graduate of mechanical engineering was unable to repair a faulty automobile; this particular episode has obviously reflected the theoretical nature of our higher institutions.
There are several factors culminating in the decadence existing in our higher institutions. Firstly, is the issue of inadequate and obsoleted infrastructural facilities, most of the institutions are not well equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that are expected of a conducive learning environment. Corroborating the fact, the controversies surrounding university of Abuja is an obvious indication of the standard of education in Nigeria in the area of infrastructural development as well as academics. What is the state of our education when a federal- owned university is deprived of the license to operate engineering programmes. Is this not a thing of shame? Secondly, our higher institutions are beehives of different reprehensible acts such as .cultism, abduction, sexual violence and other nefarious activities. The incidences of killings on our campuses resulting from clashes that ensued among cultists of different calibers, sexual assaults and rape, violent protests and indecent dressing among others. I think, all these factors are also responsible for the poor state of Nigerian education. The fall in the standard of education is the productive factor responsible for the increase tide of unemployment in the country; the ineptitude of our graduates constitutes the major reason behind this contemporary issue. Most graduates have special preference for white collar jobs rather than applying the techniques they learned in school for the purpose of self reliance. Based on pragmatism, I think our graduates are more of theory compare to practical. For instance, there was a particular interview that was held in a corporate company, where a marketing graduate was asked to demonstrate the marketing of a product; the graduate was unable to do this owing to his theoretical knowledge of marketing. This development has highlighted the level of our educational development.
In conclusion, government of the day should embrace all the strategies that can be employed to ensure that the lost glory of Nigerian education is redeemed.
