By Chika Onyesi In future, Nigeria may be filled with a crop of intellectually unfit adults who are not capable of social and econom...
By Chika Onyesi
In future, Nigeria may be filled with a crop of
intellectually unfit adults who are not capable of social and economic contributions
to the society if it does not check the learning crisis currently rocking the
education sector, experts have warned.
Recent research has placed Nigeria in first place among
countries with the lowest learning outcomes, especially among children in basic
school.
A World Bank report indicates that in sub-Saharan Africa,
87% of children are in learning poverty and are unable to perform basic
literacy and numeracy tasks.
This deficiency in learning is estimated to be most severe
in Nigeria, as data from a 2017 National Learning Assessment by the Universal
Basic Education Commission, UBEC, shows about 70% of 10-year-olds have
difficulty attaining basic foundational skills.
Already Nigeria is grappling with the challenge of poor
enrolment, where over 10.5 million children are said to be out of school and
are not learning.
What this portends for Nigeria is that in future, the
country will lack professionals in various fields, cerebral adults, and
technocrats, leaving its social and economic development on the shoulders of
intellectually poor leaders, says Economist, Dr. Chinedu Zephaniah.
In his analysis, any form of a learning crisis in the
country at the moment will boomerang in the nearest future, when children who
did not receive the kind of education they need to financially contribute to
the economy, will become adults and further burden the country’s Gross Domestic
Product.
He explains that the worth of every country is dependent on
its human capital, the reason why the United Nations mostly focuses on the
human development index of nations.
Also emphasising the nexus between social and economic
deprivation, and social unrest, Dr Zephaniah insisted that quality education
remains the best way to shape the minds of young people for constructive
development.
‘‘If you check the societies with a lot of social problems,
you will notice that they are usually where people don’t have skills so they
can’t get jobs. And because they don’t have skills and can’t get jobs, they
turn out to be the poorest in society. Now what happens is that when we don’t
raise children who have proper education, those children will in turn not get the
kinds of jobs that will pay them.
‘‘And then we are preparing children who would snowball into
things like Boko Haram, ISWAP and the rest of it. In clear terms, when
Northeast Nigeria fell under the pressure of Boko Haram, it was something that
we all knew was going to happen. At that time, the financial exclusion rates in
that region were the worst in Nigeria. So it was like a time bomb that we all
saw clicking towards zero until it exploded’.
‘‘What we can glean from this is that if we don’t make conscious
efforts to give people not just literacy, but education that is relevant for
the 21st century, they will not be able to compete in the environment and the
global space,” he said.
Recently, Manar Ahmed, an Education Specialist at UNICEF had
warned that the poor literacy milestones in basic schools are mostly, the
result of poor funding of the sector, an unqualified workforce, a lack of
resources like infrastructure and poor teaching and learning materials.
Describing the situation as dire, Manar had worried that
despite efforts to tackle the challenge using a 2018- 2021 ministerial
strategic plan; learning outcomes continue to deteriorate, pegging Nigeria as
one of the worst globally.
Meanwhile, data shows that Nigeria only allocates 1.7% of
its GDP to education, falling behind UN recommended 50% to 20% of public
finance to the sector.
Also, figures from a 2018 personnel audit by UBEC show that
at least 27% of teachers are unqualified, while a 37% classroom shortage
accounts for the insufficient physical resources needed for quality education
in schools.
But the education specialist says it is not only about the
budget but how available resources are deployed effectively and the right
teaching workforce engaged.
‘‘We know qualified teachers are in short supply at all
educational levels but it is more at the stage where you expect your child
should learn how to read and write.
On the suggestion that poorly educated children will
eventually become adults and aspire to political positions thereby leaving the
country in the hands of unfit leaders, Dr Zephaniah disagrees insisting they
will rather become nuisances to society.
He argues that there is no way someone without proper
education and cerebral competence can aspire to such heights of human
fulfilment.
He said, ”In today’s world, everything is online, the person
needs to get the kind of education to enable him to understand the simplest of
complex situations. So it is a boundary line. It is the divider, it is a
rubicon of human development. You either get an education or you will not be
able to live the barest of human life and you will not be able to attain the
most basic of the desires of an average human being in contemporary society.
”So, the problem is, you know, a huge gap in future where
Nigeria will not be a nation to reckon with because the bulk of the population
will be people without requisite skills.”
”But the fact is that we are not even thinking enough at
that time when this huge number is not able to contribute economically or
socially, the nation automatically, will not also be a country to reckon with.
“So, asking about the future the gap, the gap starts now,
the skills are required now, what will happen in future is when this comes to
full maturity, where the nation will implode and not be reckoned with, among
the committee of nations,” he maintained.
No comments