Shocking? Yes of course. Latest and authoritative news reaching us today, is that Nigerian students studying in Ghana, do speak an 300 Billion Naira annually in Ghana. Now, the issue is that every year, more and more Nigerian students are getting admission into Ghana Universities, thereby growing the economic of Ghana. But whose to be blame?
The Parents, Federal Governments, Nigerian Tertiary institutions Management or the Student?
This is a case for debate later, as Nigeria educational sector is facing problems, which has pushed Candidates to go to countries like Ghana, where Admission is based on the West Africa Examination council (WAEC) result of candidates. This means that if your O’level result is okay, you will be admitted into any Ghana Universities of your choice, Not in Nigeria, where you have to sit for Waec, JAMB and UTME Screening, where candidates will still be selected for admission into their preferred school of choice.
This information was relayed by the former Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, who disclosed that Nigerians spend N300bn annually in Ghana and an estimated N162bn annually in the United Kingdom on foreign tertiary education.
According to the former Minister of Youth Development, who is also a former Minister of Sports, when speaking in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Friday disclosed this news in a summit of the Nigerian Union of Teachers.
Mallam Abdullahi said the British Council had reported that the number of Nigerian students studying abroad had increased by 75 per cent since the year 2002, with a current estimate of about 19,000 students studying in United Kingdom.
Abdullahi said and I quote below;
“In the middle of this crisis, government interventions over the years have been business as usual at best, and misguided at worst; This shows the concerned citizens that the government either lacks a woeful of understanding of the problem or its sheer inability to apply the right measures of solution to bring about the desired turnaround in the Educational sector.’’
The ex-minister went on to enumerate that funding was about the most important issue in any conversation about education in Nigeria. Abdullahi also added that while government had argued over the years that it could not effectively fund education, the argument had become even more pertinent now that Nigeria is suffering from economic recession, making the talk about funding education almost non-important again.
Abdullahi said, “Available statistics show that between the year 2000 and 2012, an estimated of N800bn might have gone to the states in UBEC intervention alone. That is an average of N22bn to each of the states and the Federal Capital Territory.
“Now, If we are to add other direct expenditure by the various state governments on each states, this figure could go up to trillions of naira. Yet, there are sure and concrete evidence that the majority of our children completing basic education in Nigeria schools, have not achieved the required standards in basic cognitive skills.”
This is a Painful state of Affair and truly disturbing, seeing that Education in Nigeria is no longer recommended, as anyone who has the wealth to further his/her child education, chooses Foreign schools to train their children. The Only institutions in Nigeria which are producing capable students are Private Universities, and their fees are almost similar to charges of Foreign institutions.
Leave a Comment