Bilateral relations will revive education sector in Nigeria —Expert

NIGERIAN government has been urged to explore partnership opportunities with other countries in order to boost the nation’s education sector.

Mr Maksym Tsygankov, the Managing Director of More Edu Plus and Iles, a European agency, made this observation last week during a workshop organised in Lagos by the organisation to announce admission opportunities for Nigerian students in a number of European nations.

According to Tsygankov who has worked in the sector for many years in Europe and in Nigeria, countries with some of the best universities in the world benefitted in the past from interactions with schools of better or comparable status through planned scholarships and international exchange programmes.

He said, “Nigerian educational system needs to have more bilateral relations with European institutions; and to take their experience and knowledge. So maybe, for some of their years of study, Nigerian students should study in Nigeria, while for other years they can study abroad. In this way, the experience and the knowledge of the students would be much broader. Also there are different vocational programmes that schools can introduce, so students can have different choices.”

While addressing journalists after the workshop, Tsygankov said contrary to popular belief, fees charged at higher institutions in many parts of Europe are much less than the rate obtainable at most private universities in Nigeria.

He said, “There are also scholarships for exceptional students, and for countries such as Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Russia, there are guaranteed part-time jobs which serve as forms of support and cultural integration for foreign students.”