***The Standard Of Education In Nigeria***
Written by C.K. Ezeanwu.

Nigeria is one of the countries that have produced many great minds but unfortunately most of our educational institutions are flawed. There are many factors influencing the standard of education in Nigeria and I'll discuss some on this article, these negative factors has hindered many young minds from reaching their full potential, it's nearly impossible to see someone who holds a PhD at a young age which makes it almost impossible for young people to hold leadership positions in educational institutions.

Education is seen as an avenue for making money in Nigeria, most educational institutions are only concerned with getting rich than impacting knowledge on their students. The fees are ridiculously high whereas they can't provide quality education, the owners of the schools can't provide the necessary infrastructures or employ qualified teachers, some of these teachers are hired based on familiarity not qualification. I've seen many Government approved schools that lacked laboratories and qualified teachers, these so called schools would then take their sss3 students each year to other schools equipped with laboratories to enrol them for o level examinations as practical examination is a requirement for most senior school certificate examinations. The students of such schools will no doubt have to cheat in their practical examinations as they've never been familiar with the concept of practicals.

Imagine the performance of a person who was enrolled in a substandard institution throughout his/her primary and secondary education in an external examination, it'd be very poor because he/she lacks the basic knowledge required. Most people enrol their children at substandard institutions because of the ridiculous prices some standard institutions charge for tuition.

Basic education is very important because it builds the foundation for higher education. Lack of proper basic education paves the way for poor performance at secondary level which will undoubtedly also yield poor performance in higher institutions and external examinations. Someone who didn't receive standard education at the basic level will find it very hard to understand what is being taught at the secondary level and this creates a chain reaction that will eventually affect his/her performance at the tertiary level. If he/she manages to get admission into a higher institution it will be very hard to grasp meaning from what is being taught during the first year because most of the lecturers feel that the year one topics must have been introduced at the secondary level so they just treat the topics nonchalantly, and once a person fails in his/her first year in a tertiary institution it creates a chain reaction that negatively affects his/her cumulative grade point average.

The ineptitude of some lecturers has produced graduates that are not qualified to practice in their field of study, some of the lecturers in higher institutions have no passion for their job; they only practice it because of the high rate of unemployment in the country while some are just not qualified, they just come into the lecture halls dictate notes from textbooks and issue handouts while some barely show up in class and when they do they make it compulsory for students to buy textbooks written by them, most of these textbooks are not even written based on their intellect instead they go online and copy what others have written. I've seen a book that has more references than words relating to the topics of each chapter and when students refuse to purchase such books the penalty is usually loss of marks. If you're reading this don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the effort of lecturers or saying that all lecturers are incompetent. There's always a good and bad side of things and in this case i'm talking of the way incompetent lecturers affect the standard of education in Nigeria, there are also lot of competent lecturers in Nigeria.

Some say examination is not a true test of knowledge but I know it is required to test the performance of students. Unfortunately some examination questions are just absurd, some tutors set questions which has no reasonable relation to the field of study. These preposterous questions are just made to intimidate students into thinking that the course is very complex or to create mass failure so that most people will have to bribe them to pass.

The Federal Government of Nigeria pay little attention to the educational sector. Most schools don't receive adequate funding hence the lack of proper facilities in educational institutions. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on a nationwide strike on the fourth of November 2018 and till date the strike hasn't been called off yet. This is almost three months of total shutdown of academic activities in most universities and there's still no indication that it will be called off anytime soon. This shows that the educational sector is not viewed as an important sector and is treated with little regard. While the Federal Government and ASUU officials have been engaging in fruitless meetings students have been hanging in the balance and are the ones truly affected by this ongoing strike not the Federal Government or members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

In conclusion, the standard of education in Nigeria is poor and we have the power to improve it. The educational sector should be treated with high regard and educational institutions should not be used as a business avenue, qualified tutors, proper facilities, and conducive learning environments should be made available to pave the way for a standard educational system.