The quote of the former American activist, Malcolm X, remains fresh and green in my life. He stated thus: “Education is the passport to the future; for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today”.
Education is the process of teaching, training or learning; especially in schools or institutions. In a more realistic way, education is the only and biggest asset without any depreciation in the balance sheet of life. So why does this asset still promise us a bleak future in our dear country Nigeria?
According to the World Economic Forum (2017), Nigeria ranked 124th out of 137 countries in terms of quality of primary education. Nigeria was also missing among the top 10 African countries with the best education system. How could that be proper for a country like Nigeria, which is known to be the giant of Africa?
This education is supposed to be the key to success to every student. Unfortunately, the future is not promising with this kind of educational quality we witness in our basic, secondary and tertiary schools in our country today.
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The quality of education in Nigeria is at a level that certain groups of people, mostly less privileged, are affected by the educational system crisis than others. Come to think of it, children in rural areas are worse than their counterparts in urban areas despite coming from the same country.
Funding seems to be the major challenge troubling the quality of education in Nigeria which happens to be the usual reason for almost every strike in higher institutions as well as the reason for the inconsistency of primary and secondary schools’ teachers in class and other sensitive academic activities.
Moreso, some parents are not helping matters, hence, they aid their children in exam malpractice, inconsistency, disrespect for their teachers and are not willing to pay their ward school fees.
Education is the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. This is meant to tell you that our future lies in our hands; however, unless we plan something good and better, we shall never achieve something better.
Sumayya Al’ameen wrote from Ummul-Qura Islamic Standard Academy, Kaduna
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