In most countries of the world, especially in civilized climes, issues of crisis and instability in the educational system is hardly ever heard of. It may come as a surprise to you that in the United States of America, many international students, scholars and visitors are often surprised to discover that the United States has no overarching education board, yet they are very stable academically. Education and its management are not explicitly mentioned in the U.S. constitution; school policy is left for each state to decide. The federal government of the United States can only influence education through funding, but the extent to which it does that is limited.

If that is the case, why is our own system having an issue of funding despite the fact the Federal Government controls educational policy in Nigeria? There ought to be no issue since it’s clear whose responsibility it is to fund and manage education in the country. Why has it gotten to the point where the Federal Government and the various academic associations in the country place personal priorities over and above the welfare of the students and the youths — the so-called leaders of tomorrow? The Nigerian students have been clearly shortchanged and are being used as pawns in this messy game between the Federal Government and educational governing bodies in the country. When the issue of the rights of the students comes up, do the leaders of the nation and the academic unions deem it fit to lay aside their personal grievances for the sake of the future generation that they claim to be working to empower?

A year ago in Pakistan, a 16 year old schoolgirl named Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban, because she was campaigning for the right of girls in that country to formal education. Some Nigerian students have taken a cue from this little girl’s boldness to demand for their own rights, this time around to an uninterrupted school calendar. Some aggrieved students in our higher institutions have recently taken to the streets across some cities in the country to air their grievances and appeal to the government and academic unions to sheath their swords and find a permanent solution to the lingering crisis in the education sector of the country.

It is high time our legislature started considering what should be known as the bill for the “Right of Students” that will empower them (the students) to have an equal say in what goes on in the educational sector of the country. The government and the various academic unions should no longer be allowed to hold this vital sector of the economy to ransom as and when they so wish. The students, who are the real stakeholders, should have a say too, not only in the streets, but in round table discussions.

http://observerreports.com/2013/10/the-meltdown-of-education-in-nigeria/

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