Of change, education in Nigeria

EDUCATION is the single most important factor in ensuring the effectiveness of labour and making other factors of production yield desired goals.

It enables change, in  the process generating intense intellectual fireworks. Defectiveeducation is the major cause of the reign of terror currently threatening security, peaceful coexistence, businesses and governance in certain parts of Nigeria.

Education is a powerful agent of social transformation. We do face a crisis in the education sector and it will keep worsening until we view it as a critical national need.

Quality, basic educationfor everybody would aid both citizens and the society better than an army of tertiary education graduates who are ill-educated and ill-equipped to contribute to the economy.

To arrest the decay in education, efforts have to be concentrated on teacher training and welfare so that teachers would become self-confident, proud of their profession, and living decently in the society.

Teachers at all levels should be sent for research, in-service training, conferences and workshops to improve and equip themselves as they should not be stagnant.

If  Nigeria is to use its demographic potentials to create a dynamic economy, it has to improve the educationsector drastically, otherwise the lack of skills would translate the growing population into growing unemployment, poverty and conflicts.

Also, with unemployment, poverty and questionable leadership fuelling conflict, there is a growing tendency that only increased private sector participation could save educationfrom continuous decline in Africa.

One of the functions of education is to teach one to think intensively and critically.

Oluwapelumi Akinola

[email protected]