The huge capital flight by Nigerians in the process of giving higher education to their children in foreign lands has been identified as a critical factor and the reason aspiration for attaining standard tertiary education in the country will permanently remain a mirage.
The Deputy Managing Director of Courtville Business Solutions PLC, Alhaji Thabit Wale Sonaike, made this declaration.
He made the declaration at a conference on tertiary education in Lagos.
Sonaike, in his welcome address as the Chairman at the annual conference of The Companion, an association of Muslim men in business and the professions, Lagos District, said available statistics indicate that Nigerians spent a whopping “$1.88 billion between January and September 2021 and $1.38 billion between same period in 2022”.
He said: “These expenditures are above the total budgetary allocation to higher education in Nigeria in the two years of 2021 and 2022.
“We cannot be spending so much money to educate fewer students abroad at the expense of millions in Nigeria and expect a high standard of tertiary education.”
As a nation, Sonaike, who is also former National Amir of the organisation, said Nigeria requires a rebirth in our attitude, adding: “We are a nation of ‘short cut’ and ‘quick fix’.
ALSO READ:
Alleged failed surgery: Court further adjourns trial of Lagos surgeon
UPDATED: Medical director, Olaleye bags double life imprisonment for defiling wife’s niece
Ondo Deputy Governor speaks on protest against Akeredolu by ‘group loyal to me’
“We must change our miracle mentality in always looking for short term solutions and the tendency to cut corners to address issues and solve problems.
“We must embrace a painstaking search for enduring and sustainable solutions.
“This attitude is manifested in various national issues.
“We import fuel rather than fix our refineries, import SUVs and so-called rugged vehicles rather than fix our roads, we rush abroad for medical treatment rather than fix our hospitals and now we send our children to school abroad rather than fix our schools.” Sonaike restated.
While commenting on the theme of the conference: “Education for sustainable development,” and its public lecture topic: “Rethinking tertiary education standard in Nigeria,” Alhaji Sonaike lamented that the crave by stakeholders to establish tertiary institutions without adequate recourse to quality and standard has manifested in proliferation of higher schools, but sadly with poor standard, as well as plethora of unemployable graduates.
He disclosed: “Within 43 years covering 1980 to June 2023, the number of accredited and approved universities in Nigeria moved from 13 to 264.
“Enrolment also jumped from a projected 108,000 by 1985 to 2.3 million students in 2023.
“This, according to the statistics, is just about 12 percent of the total population of Nigeria estimated at 220 million.
“The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission was also recently quoted to have said that ‘the nation still needed more universities because millions of youths who desired to earn university degrees could not do so due to limited access to university education’.
“According to him, access to university education remained a challenge due to high demand and increasing number of secondary school graduates.
“In the same vein, the number of approved private polytechnics has moved from NIL in 1980 to 87 as at 2022.
“This is in addition to 53 state polytechnics and 40 federal polytechnics, making a total of 180 polytechnics.
“There are also 55 approved and accredited specialised institutions offering tertiary education in the country.
“In addition to these are 35 Colleges of Agriculture, 68 public and over 22 private Colleges of Health Science and Technology and several other innovation and vocational enterprise institutions providing tertiary education.
“The trend is almost the same in our Colleges of Education, where primary school and Junior Secondary School teachers are trained and produced.
“The number of institutions and the figures of enrollment in this category of tertiary education has also increased tremendously over the years.
“I need not bore you with more figures in this direction.”
From whichever angle of the conversation one is looking at it, Sonaike maintained that it was obvious that the standard of tertiary education, whether in public or private institutions, in Nigeria has come under severe threats and compromise, arising from various factors such as underfunding.
He stressed further: “Inappropriate funding has multi-dimensional implications, which affect the standard of education being provided by the institutions.
“These include inadequate infrastructural facilities, poor remuneration of lecturers, including a backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances.
“Other implications arising from poor funding include inadequate classrooms and lecture rooms, leading to overcrowded classrooms, poorly equipped libraries, laboratories and workshops, as well as shortage of qualified academic staff, including incessant strikes by both academic and non-academic staff.
“Furthermore, factors such as corruption, brain drain, poor research funding, weak administration, lack of autonomy and political interference have also contributed in one way or another to the perceived poor standard of tertiary education in Nigeria.
“The issue of insecurity has also become a significant factor affecting education generally in Nigeria.
“We must also recognise the issue of the relevance of curriculum and programmes to the socio-economic and technological development of the country.
“Where there is a mismatch or gap between industry/labour requirement and courses/skills being offered in the institutions, the issue of standard becomes immaterial.
“Our situation is further worsened by the extreme emphasis which our society places on academic qualification from tertiary institutions.
“This in turn has brought about untold pressure on these institutions and the overstretching of their human and material resources to the extent that standards are compromised in most cases.
“In the midst of this situation, however, we must not loose sight of the fact that Nigerian born and trained students are still performing very well all over the world.”
Besides, Alhaji Sonaike emphasised that the country must recognise the need for her tertiary institutions to embrace more innovative, more creative and more constructive as well as develop more forward thinking, curriculum to enrich higher standards in teaching, learning and research, adding that such curriculum should produce students who are industry-ready, serve the demands of the economy, promote entrepreneurship and forge collaboration and partnership with local industry and advanced foreign institutions of higher learning to propel a higher education relevant for national development and global competitiveness.
Most significantly, Sonaike established that the issue of standard of education in tertiary institutions cannot be successfully addressed in isolation of the standard of education in our primary and secondary schools.
To this end, he declared that the foundation of education was faulty or “questionable” at these two levels, therefore, the rethink of the standard of tertiary education is not likely to achieve any meaningful impact if the bases are not given proper and adequate attention.
Follow The Eagle Online Channel on WhatsApp
