CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Over the years, Nigeria politics has been a problem to the growth and development of other sectors of the economy, including the educational system of Nigeria. Although the education in Nigeria has been clouded with several challenges like strikes, examination malpractice, poor funding, cultism, dilapidated structures, inadequate teaching/learning facilities, etc. due to these challenges, there is need to call on the stakeholders in the education sector and let them know how their actions and inactions have contributed towards affecting the education system of the country. These problems have been very obvious in the foundational levels of education, the primary and secondary education.
Sustainable development is achieved when a country invest more in acquiring knowledge rather than investing just in physical resources (World Bank, 1999: 26). A developing country like Nigeria can achieve sustainable development if these three points are taken into consideration:
Seek and use global knowledge to form its local knowledge. Invest in human resources for proper usage of knowledge; and Invest in technology for absorption of knowledge.
Education in Nigeria has always been one of the sectors past administrations seem to have interest in, yet it is still faced with challenges. Nigeria just like other developing countries is lacking behind when it comes to their education system being on the same pane with the current trend of the 21st century. The National Policy on Education was established in 1977, revised in 1981 and 1990. The reason for which it was revised was to ensure that the education sector assists in the actualization of government development goals. These education policies are long term meant to meet the principles of new democracy.
Universal Primary Education has always and is still one of the priorities of the Nigerian government right from the seventies, but its major challenge is the fund to achieve it. Universal Primary Education can be fully implemented through the presence of adequate resources, active participation by the different levels of government and students’ participation. Universal Primary Education was re-launched in 1999 by the then government as a core task to achieve, alongside an international agreement on providing education for all through the “World Declaration on Education for All” campaign that took place at Jomtien (Thailand) World Conference in 1990.
Education in Nigeria is characterized by examination malpractice, poor facilities, and indiscriminate mass promotion syndrome in schools. All these are linked to: lack of interest of government in education issues, government and private institutions reaction to university graduates and laziness on the parts of students.
However, when the right measures are not put in place for teaching and learning it definitely has an adverse effect on the performance of students. Nigerian universities on a daily basis keep producing unemployable graduates into the labour market; graduates who were only taught theories without practice. In addition, the educational system of Nigeria produces students who cannot confidently compete with their counterparts from other international institutions.
This study aims at examining Nigeria educational system, its main issues and performance and make recommendations where necessary.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There are many challenges surrounding Nigeria educational system. There include:
Insufficient funding Lack of teaching and learning facilities Examination malpractice Strikes by teachers and riots by students Dilapidated structures
All these problems affect the efficiency of the educational system of Nigeria, including the performance of students academically.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The major objective of this study is Nigeria educational system: main issues and performance.
Other specific objectives include:
a) To examine the relationship between students’ performance and government funding of education.
b) To examine the impact of modern day teaching aid on Nigerian education.
c) To examine the relationship between Nigeria educational system and national development.
d) To identify ways of improving the Nigeria educational system.