The role of education in the development of a society can never be over emphasized. This is because education is considered as the bedrock for sustainable development and it is therefore indispensable for advancement in all spheres of life, such as science, technology, legislation and production.
Education is the most effective means for confronting the challenges of the future as societal progress depends upon the products of education. In other words, education is the sine qua non for effective participation in the life of the modern world at all levels. Simply put, education is humanity’s best hope and most effective means in the societal quest for sustainable development. “
It could be rightly stressed that the sociopolitical and economic development of any nation is hinged ‘on the quality and level of educational attainment of the population as no nation can develop above the quality of its education.
To neglect this sector therefore means an inevitable social paralysis. This is why it is paramount for the youths to be given the enabling environment that would help maximum potential.
One of the ways of improving the standard of education in Nigeria is for the government to pay more attention to the educators by motivating them to perform their duties optimally.
Public tertiary institutions which infact account for more than 70 per cent of higher educational needs’ in Nigeria have been left to rot for too long. Loans received from the World Bank for education during the 1990’s were not properly utilised. Many have attributed deprivation suffered by the educational sector in the past to the military incursion into governance. Education was not given its proper priority during this era.
This neglect accounted for the unabated strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to protest the continued falling standard of education.
But just when it seemed that some semblance of stability had returned to the University academic calendar, with the inception of the democratic dispensation, ASUU again embarked on a nationwide strike that once more paralysed academic activities in the nation’s ivory towers,
ASUU argued that government was yet to fulfill its obligations towards it. On the other hand, government on its own part was worried about the budgetary implications of its agreement with ASUU because of its lean resources in the face of competing and sometimes conflicting demands. This has been responsible for the persistent shortfalls in the recurrent grants to Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and inter-university centres for almost four years. It is through this reason that the recent release of the sum of N6.7 billion to tertiary institutions by the government could be seen.
Government has taken the right steps by the approval of the release of N6.7 billion for the payment of all-outstanding salaries, emoluments, and allowances of staff, which accrued from 2001 to 2003 fiscal years. By this gesture, President Olusegun Obasanjo has demonstrated his administration’s responsiveness towards providing solutions to the problems confronting the education sector.
Government seemed to have finally come to the realization of the place of education in sustainable development of the society. Consequently, the President has pledged to accord adequate attention to education, while acknowledging “education is the only thing that develops any citizen in order t,o make optimum contribution to his life, community, nation and the world”,
ASUU however should be reminded at this point, to reciprocate the gesture of the Federal Government by remaining in the classes to lecture and carry out research to improve the lives of the people. The recourse to strike at the faintest opportunity has outlived its usefulness and in fact the option of strike is very embarrassing and unbecoming of responsible! academic association such as ASUU.
The Government should in the same vein realize that the time is ripe for it to find a long-term solution to tackling the problem of tertiary education with the urgency it tackled the Labour Bill and should start re-ordering its priorities in order to check brain-drain in the system.
Lack of proper education in Nigeria contributes to many social ills, such as armed robbery and prostitution. In conclusion, it should be noted that this is the ideal time that stakeholders in the education sector should consider alternative measures of funding tertiary institutions. Rather than depend fully on the government whose resources is often time limited as a result of competing attention from other sectors for funds, the citadel of knowledge should evolve new strategies of substance in order to be able to meet global challenges.
Akabueze writes from the department
of Economics, Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma
