Nigerian Universities have progressed Commendably in Last Three Years

Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria has almost doubled the population of Egypt and Ethiopia. Nigeria has 63 percent of young population below the age of 24 and the relative annual growth rate of the country is 3.24 percent.

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The incredibly high young population means that government is at present hard pressed to meet. The number of students has increased from below 15, 000 in 1970 to about 1.2 million in 2013, at the tertiary level alone. It is because of this huge growth in demand, a large number of tertiary students annually misses out because there are not enough seats in the educational institutions to meet the demands. (Source:bit.ly/1cU9unJ )

The delivery of quality education in Nigeria is sole responsibility of federal government. Earlier, the state of education sector in Nigeria was very poor, mainly due to the lack of funds. Undoubtedly, federal government is accountable to provide quality education, curriculum design, recommend national education philosophy and direction to the education policy of the country.

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However, the time has changed and Nigerian universities have started getting local and international accolades for the transformation under the recent administration. Slowly and gradually, Nigerian universities have started to compete with the best on the continent as well as global platform.

The improvement marked by Nigerian universities is barely brought to the notice because most NGOs and media organisations are not keen on assessing and inspecting the academic and infrastructural plans being implemented by the current Jonathan government. On the other hand, the World Bank thinks otherwise, as it has selected 10 public and private universities from Nigeria as Centres of Excellence for the exceptional research programmes in societal development.

The World Bank would grant each of these selected African Centres of Excellence, ACE, a sum of $8million USD, N12.8 billion to work on approved research projects. The funds given to the selected ACE is for the duration between 2014 and 2017. Most importantly, out of 18 African Centres of Excellence chosen by World Bank, 10 are from Nigeria.

There are seven federal, one state-owned and two private universities in the list of universities to benefit from World Bank policy. The massive investments from the Jonathan administration made the African Centres of Excellence possible. It will strengthen the ability of the National Universities Commission to observe the activities of universities in Nigeria.

The wise investment by the federal government of Nigeria and efficient observation by the NUC are the real factors behind the accomplishment by Nigerian universities. Since Jonathan got elected to lead the federal government in country, the face of university education has changed for good. Such is the progress made by education sector in Nigeria that the team leader at World Bank, Mr. Andres Bloom, expressed keen interest to partner with the Nigerian government. The level of commitment shown by the project officials was also satisfactory in his eye.

Nigeria will continue to receive the gratitude for expansion of university education. Apart from World Bank, there are plenty of other international agencies keen to collaborate with federal government of Nigeria to further intensify the benefits attained in previous three years.

The Nigerian universities have come a long way and started to taste the fruit of success after the initial days of hard work. Let’s hope that higher education sector in country will continue to rise and yield positive results.

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Online Education: A Trend Changing The Nigerian Education

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Internet learning, Online Education, or Distance Learning – whatever you prefer to call it, is a big trend in today’s academic world. For most it’s a flexible knowledge enhancer programme that hardly demand any sacrifice in your professional and personal life. Moreover, it is making education available for all overcoming the physical, geographical and financial predicaments. From students in China who can’t afford to fly abroad to the learners in African continent living below poverty level – online education is bringing hope for everybody.

Helping to overcome the barriers

Demand of the employers is increasing. They want smarter performance at workplace. So, employees who want to improve their performance are keen on attaining higher level degrees. Hence, demand for higher and effective education is increasing all over the world.

People residing in developing continents are opting for study abroad as their educational resources aren’t satisfactory enough. For example a surging popularity for the courses available in UK Universities is being noticed among the Nigerian students over the last few years and it’s increasing at a rapid rate. The Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK (HESA) shows that 17,640 Nigerians enrolled to study at UK universities during 2011/12 compared to 5,385 for 2003/04. Selma Toohey, international recruitment officer for Sub-Saharan Africa at Nottingham Trent University, says - “More people are realising that studying in the UK is a realistic option and many find it to be a real benefit to experience living in another culture while studying for their degrees.”

Fresh avenues toward brighter future

Well, if your commitments and responsibilities are keeping you away from such pleasures then new age learning options are ready to help you. In addition to that, visiting a foreign land to pursue a degree is still a far cry for many people around the world. So, the best Universities are opening online curriculum to reach out to those who are unable to afford higher education.

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It’s not that Nigerians don’t have good educational institutions but they don’t operate properly as the government doesn’t fund for them. Moreover, most of them are over-populated and have more than enough academic staffs. So, students are gradually moving toward online education. Initiatives are being taken and renowned institutions are coming forward to change the present environment. Of late, Intel launched an online solution for the new age learners in Nigeria. Their mission is to help them access economical and free digital learning resources. The education solution, Learn Marketplace, and Intel Explore are introduced and designed to facilitate the traditional complications of learning. Speaking about the collaboration with Intel, Ehizogie Binitie, Co-Founder And Chief Technology Officer of Rancard, said,

“We recognise education as a major challenge across the continent and believe the platform we have deployed together with Intel for the African market is an important step in solving this challenge, equipping both educators and content creators with the tools they need to create and distribute high quality educational content.”

Attaining education through online can be a great technique for learners with busy schedule or having geographical and financial constraints. Including the options of flexible scheduling, audio-video instructions, and relevant choices in courses, internet classes offer you to be a part of global classroom and participate in discussions where your mates will be commenting from different parts of the world with you. It couldn’t be more exciting than this for the students of developing countries like Nigeria.

The Role of Women in Nigeria’s Progress

If someone asks you who you are, you are most likely to say your name. If they probe further, you might tell them what kind of a person you are or where you work, etc. You are your own person in your own right – an individual. But what about those women who do not, or are not allowed, to think of themselves in that manner? When you think of Nigeria, usually the first thoughts that will enter your mind are related to the country’s political situation, their social upheaval, and the poor condition of living. What crosses your mind when you think about the Nigerian woman?

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Who is a Nigerian woman? How does she identify herself? A mother? A daughter? A sister? A wife? Who is she? Like you, can she not say “I am me.”? Usually, no. So used to being defined by her roles, the woman of Nigeria does not know who she is. This is of course changing, albeit slowly. The change can be attributed to social progress, which again can be attributed to education. Though far from ideal, the education system in Nigeria is slowly and steadily changing the lives of many women.

So why is women’s education so important? It is because an educated woman becomes a vessel of knowledge herself. Unlike her male counterparts, she interacts with many other women of various ages and is able to teach them too. As a formally educated woman, she can have more of a say in how her household is run and how her children are brought up. As an educated person, she can go out into the world to find a job and nurture a career. These are however very concrete examples that still fail to capture what education really does.

And what does education really do? It empowers them by making them aware. Aware of themselves and aware of the world around them. Once curiosity and the habit of learning is inculcated, it will always stay with her. When she knows why something happens, or how something can be prevented, she carries that knowledge within herself and passes it forward through her friends and family, who in turn pass it on to many others. This heightened awareness of people is what leads to progress. The ability to know better, to be able to make an informed choice, that is what greases the wheels of social development. 

If you want to know more about education and progress in Nigeria, read more about it here.