I believe one of the major challenges facing the nation’s education sector is the severe dearth of infrastructure. Infrastructure here is defined but not limited to the structures that house pupils and students by way of classrooms and staff offices as well as necessary equipment for learning such as library, laboratories, sufficient space for exercises, such as sports and recreation as well as other sundries that enhance positive engagement of exuberance.
In the last several years, schools and other vocational institutions have collapsed due to abject neglect by successive regimes. Regimes here are defined as authorities at all levels including management of schools and institutions. Investment in the social sector has suffered consistent neglect and decline, especially when placed against the backdrop of high level of corruption at all levels. It is clear in Nigeria that over time, pilferage of government funds was directly proportional to the position of the individual pilferer.
Monies were stolen on the basis of position and relation to trust that individuals enjoyed.
In Nigeria today, our schools are in shambles, they are at best avenues for the production of graduates that are merely reflections of the general rot in the system. I am often embarrassed when friends and colleagues confront me with the problem of low quality graduates who apparently have passed through me in the university and are either looking for jobs or already engaged but whose output hardly reflects the status of university graduates. The reality is that the system is in serious stress and therefore as the saying goes, it is garbage in garbage out.
The number of Nigerian students that are going to universities in Ghana and Sudan not to talk of Egypt or other nations of the West is alarming. Substantial quantum of resources is deployed in paying tuition alone not to talk about other living expenses. A substantial drain on the national reserve you would say. In 2012, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a statement to the effect that the total amount of money that was paid through the official channels to Ghanaian universities as tuition in the preceding year was more than the total amount that was budgeted for the entire federal universities in the country during the corresponding period.
In Sudan, a friend of mine told me a few years ago that due to the academic quality of Sudanese universities, thousands of Nigerian students today attend their universities and pay heavily which is though relatively lower than what is paid in other parts of the globe. It is arguable but the hypothesis exists that most universities in Sudan are wearing modern looks owing to the huge amounts of inflow from foreign students most of whom are from Nigeria.
I was privileged to attend a seminar on federalism organised by the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs mid-December 2015 along with Professors Audu Nanven Gambo and Usman Tar in Khartoum. At the end of the conference, the Nigerian ambassador to Sudan invited us to attend the 50th anniversary of the University for Women in Khartoum and the opportunity availed us with how far the Sudanese have invested in education over time. They do not have as much resources both human and material but they have serious people and leadership and it is clear that most of the structures in that university are wearing a new look meaning they were built within the last few years.
In our tertiary institutions, what you see is dilapidation despite the huge amounts that government is investing annually. The intervention called TETFund has been more of political institution in the last few years than an avenue that could serve to expand the carrying capacities and quality of Nigerian tertiary institutions. Politicians have milked the fund and excess resources deployed for political activities by the government that just left.
It is possible to resurrect our ailing institutions from primary to the tertiary levels. We have seen what Kwankwaso has done in Kano. It remains unequalled throughout the 36 states of the federation. We see what Nasiru el-Rufai is doing with primary and secondary schools in Kaduna State. In the next few years, primary and secondary schools in Kaduna would become models where parents would rush to enroll their children and wards. Public schools would regain the quality that they were made of which by the grace of God was what saw most of us to the levels that we are in life today.
The argument here is that Nigeria at the centre and at levels of government have the resources despite its limitation to radically address the dilapidated state of education in the country. The creation of ETF and later TETFund remains one of the best policies taken in the history of this country. I will suggest that there should be a review of the enabling Act to enforce more compliance and create more efficient regulatory framework to direct maximum utilisation of the fund in the area of expansion of carrying capacities of institutions of higher learning by massive construction of classrooms, theatres, laboratories, libraries as well as human capital development of thousands of young graduates at first and higher degrees that could take up jobs as lecturers in our institutions of higher learning.
I want to think that with TETFund, education more than health and other sectors has been effectively set in motion to break from the vestiges of acute shortages, dearth and want that have led to the poor state of manpower in the country. When previous governments spoke about making Nigeria one of the largest 20 economies in the world, it was laughable because the key to development is education and statistics though unconfirmed, have put literacy level in the country at below 40 percent.
Now that a serious government is in place, it is crucial that a redirection and reorientation is imbibed with a view to upgrading and improving on the quantity and quality of infrastructure in place. No doubt, the institutions due to low carrying capacity accommodate less than 30 percent of young boys and girls who qualify to have tertiary education.
Education remains an issue, which must be faced with the required seriousness if Nigeria is to know peace and make progress despite its huge population, abundant natural resources and place in the international arena. We must revisit our focus of educational infrastructure in Nigeria