Education

Experts speak on danger of Nigeria’s ‘learning crisis’ in basic education delivery

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3 years ago

Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education

NIGERIA is facing a staggering learning crisis with learning outcomes being one of the lowest globally. 70 per cent of children in schools cannot read and write or perform basic numeracy task by age 10, Education Specialist, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Manar Ahmed has said.

This is a new dimension of crisis in the basic education sector in Nigeria, which experts say is a potential threat to the future of the Nigerian child.

The major concern of the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the education sector in the country had been on how to ensure that the more than 10.5 million out-of-school children are enrolled in schools.

However, the new global report has shown that the actualisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, especially Goal 4, is being threatened by the learning crisis.

Experts had warned that this development portended grave danger to the nation and a bleak future for the Nigerian child, requiring concerted efforts of all stakeholders.

It was against this backdrop that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture organised a two-day media dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Kano with focus on ‘Foundational Literacy and Numeracy,’ where experts x-rayed some of the underlining issues to be brought to the front burner.

The experts believed that the issue of child rights which is given scant attention in Nigeria, remained the core of the Sustainable Development Goals as it was observed that building a sustainable future would depend on how the needs of children and young people are met.

UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office, Kano, Rahama Mohammed Farah, while speaking at the event, reiterated that Nigeria is faced with a learning crisis, whereby adequate learning is not taking place in schools.

Farah, who was represented by Officer-in-charge (OIC), UNICEF Field Office Kano, Elhadji Issakha Diop, quoted the World Bank saying that Nigeria is experiencing learning poverty in which 70 percent of the 10-year-old learners could not understand a simple sentence or perform basic numeracy task.

“Talking about children’s rights, Education is one of such rights. Education is a fundamental human right, and that right is well-articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“It is clear that to improve learning outcomes in Nigeria, achieving basic foundational skills at that level of learning cannot be overemphasised,” he said.

Speaking on the importance of the child rights, UNICEF Communication specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, said that there was no way the SDGs could be achieved by 2030 without focusing on children’s rights.

The Federal Government also affirmed this as clearly stated in the ‘Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan (2018-2022),’ that inadequate funding, poor quality of teachers, who in general lack the ability to implement the national curriculum were some of the key factors impeding the attainment of the national targets and the full achievement of SDGs target goals.

The Goal 4 of the 2030 global agenda is meant to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

In her virtual presentation, UNICEF Education Specialist, Manar Ahmed, lamented that there was a huge learning crisis in Nigeria which had led to over 70 percent of children not achieving basic foundational skills.

She decried poor funding and low public spending on education as reflected in budgetary allocation to the education sector in Nigeria, where about 7 percent of the national budget was allocated to education in 2022, and also about 1.7 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was allocated to education.

She listed other challenges of basic education in Nigeria to include shortage of qualified teachers, disclosing that about 27 percent of the teaching staff are unqualified, with insufficient physical resources and high teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 55 in primary schools.

She noted that Nigeria does not lack the right policies to address the learning crisis but political will to implement the policies to improve on the quality basic education delivery.

“Nigeria is facing a staggering learning crisis with learning outcomes being one of the lowest globally,” she said.

“When you look at public expenditure on education, the World Bank said that it was at 5.6 percent. This year, 2022, President Buhari had already approved 7 percent to the education sector budget, which is a great move to address the learning crisis.

“However, we have to put it in the context of the recommendation that 20 to 30 percent of annual budget should be allocated to education. The states need to double what they currently have as public financing of education, if Nigeria wants to improve on the learning outcome,” Ahmed said.

She further disclosed that the 2018 National Personnel Audit conducted in both public and private schools in the country revealed that 27 percent of teachers are unqualified.

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She disclosed that UNICEF has been supporting Nigeria in addressing some of these challenges through evidence-base learning programmes.

Also, Dr Chidiebere Ezinwa of Department of Mass Communication, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, told Nigerian Tribune in an interview that relevant legal instruments provided framework for the realisation of child rights and SDGs, including International Convention on the rights of the child (CRC), 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria among others.

He said: “The Sustainable Development Goals will remain a mirage until the rights of children are fulfilled. If you look at the situation in the education sector, we are already in a learning crisis, a situation where we are not just talking about millions of our children being out of school; we are also being faced with the challenge of those in school not being able to learn.

“It is important that we raise awareness about this situation and also make people to realise that without the fulfilment of the rights of children to education, the SDGs will remain a mirage. With education, a child is given necessary skills he or she needs for tomorrow,” Ezinwa said.

Speaking on Goal 4 of SDGs, on access to quality education, he quoted a global report that about 258 million children and youth were still out of school in 2018, nearly one fifth of the global population in that age group.

Ezinwa added that 144 million children under age 5 were affected by stunting globally in 2019, with three quarters living in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, maintaining that malnutrition infringes on the child right to life, proper nutrition, health and quality education.