To restore standards, peace, and security in Nigeria’s educational system, The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has announced that it has finished planning to launch a campaign. The NANS has stated that the educational system faces a significant risk of potentially collapsing. During a press briefing held on Saturday prior to the main event, the National Treasurer of NANS, Chinyelu Okolie, called on the Nigerian federal government to raise financing for education in order to advance and completely reform the country’s educational system.
According to Okolie, over the course of Nigeria’s history, the nation’s education sector has been granted a percentage of the national budget that is significantly lower than the 26 percent that the United Nations recommend. They are left with theories rather than adequate practice, which prevents them from having the possibility to compete favourably with other nations throughout the world. Because the majority of the institution’s infrastructure is deteriorating and is largely inconvenient for practical classes as they should be.
Over 1000 students were kidnapped between 2020 to 2022.
Numerous reports of kidnappings, thefts, and even deaths among students attest to the widespread lack of safety on most of the campuses. Even more horrifying is the fact that over a thousand students were kidnapped from Nigerian schools in just the past two years, from 2020 to 2022. According to Save the Children International, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), and the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), an international organisation, there were a total of 100 attacks between 2015 and 2019 on schools in Nigeria.
As an advocate for a standardised and high-quality educational system in Nigeria, She revealed further that they would not give up fighting for this goal until academic normalcy has been reinstated. She went on to say that education is the key to opening doors of opportunity and that it should be a basic fundamental right of every citizen. However, given the state of things at the moment, education in Nigeria is fraught with a wide variety of challenges.
Inadequate funding and other factors are impeding the sector’s growth.
It should come as no surprise that the educational system in Nigeria is facing an imminent threat of falling completely apart and has been steadily deteriorating over the past two decades, in particular, dereliction, educational inequality, overcrowding in the educational system, insufficient security, inadequate funding, unpaid salaries, rising tuition, moral decay, and others that include things like frequent strikes, a poor infrastructure, the introduction of foreign curriculum, tribalism, quota systems, and so on are all contributing factors to this deterioration.
They are making an appeal to all students and educational actors, requesting that they identify the issues they are having in their respective departments and fields of study. This will make it possible for them to develop long-term solutions that will lead to improvements in the educational system. This is preferable to taking steps that will have a negative impact on the progress of the educational system in Nigeria and cause unimaginable suffering to young people.
Low earners can’t afford to pay for their children’s tuition fees.
Moreover, the primary interest of public institutions is their low tuition rates. However, in recent years, the opposite has been true, which is ironic. People with low incomes cannot afford to pay for their children’s tuition fees, which discourages their children from receiving basic education and impedes the advancement of education in Nigeria. Taking into account a nation in which more than 10.5 million students are unable to attend school owing to a lack of financial resources.
Related Link
NANS: Website
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