The education system of Nigeria has been reported to be in shambles as of 2019. The basis for the education model in the country is inspired by the Chinese and German systems that were earlier adopted by Ghana. The formula for the education system of Nigeria is based on the notion of 1 year of pre-school, 6 years of primary school, 3 years of lower secondary school, 3 years of senior secondary school, and finally 4 years of graduate education. This system of education was adopted by Nigeria in 1989 and the same has been in place since then up until 2019, when some major changes were made.
The history
In 1989, Professor Jubril Aminu, the then Education Minister of Nigeria, introduced the aforementioned education system of Nigeria. He emphasised on the nomadic system of education for certain nomadic cultural groups of Nigeria as well. Following this, in 1990, his successor in the post, Professor Babs Fafunwa revised the entire educational policy of Nigeria and incorporated the use of native languages into the education system of Nigeria. Finally in 2008, Professor Sam Egwu moved the Ministry of Education of Nigeria to provide for an agreement that would represent the educationalists of Nigeria. Even, their wages and the autonomy of universities were discussed. However, there has been a significant decline in the education system of Nigeria since then.
Benefits of the system
One of the key highlights of the education system of Nigeria is the ‘School Management System’ that is currently in vogue. This system monitors the cognitive behaviour of students and their academic progress in order to identify important trends. The education system of Nigeria has also understood the importance of parents’ involvement in a student’s learning. Finally, this ‘School Management System’ enables the education system of Nigeria to accurately monitor and report costs and other financials to facilitate proper planning of the curriculum, increase the efficiency and productivity of academic staff, and reduce financial burdens on the system. By doing all of these, the education system of Nigeria has been turned around to focus on quality.
Major issues
One of the most ailing issues of the education system of Nigeria is that of funding. Since Sam Egwu’s discussions about government funding of higher education in 2009, there has not been much improvement in the matter. The issue arises out of lack of proper governance since only a meagre 7% was assigned to the education budget for 2018. Not only for school education, but funding is severely lacking even for higher education and research. Also, the education system of Nigeria has no means to implement valuable research into practice.
A more severe problem is the interruption of academic activities throughout the year due to frequent strikes by academic staff as a result of the fallacies of the existing education system of Nigeria. Hence, Nigerian students often look abroad to achieve their academic goals.
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