Nigerian Education Policies: Probleds and Prospects

INTRODUCTION
When the issue of Nigeria educational system
today is raised, the first sets of thoughts that
comes to mind are: decline in standard,
deterioration of facilities, examination malpractices,
mass promotion syndrome and the like before any
other thing else. This calls for an in-depth study
and analysis aimed at tutoring each and every
stakeholders in the education system on how their
actions and inactions have individually and
collectively contributed to the collapsing state of
education in Nigeria. In any case, knowledge and
skill acquisition which education is all about
cannot be over emphasized. According to the
World Bank (1999: 25), “successful development
entails more than investing in physical capital, or
closing the gap in capital. It also entails acquiring
and using knowledge as well as closing the gaps
in knowledge”. Thus, to successfully confront the
challenges of development, a developing country
must undertake three major tasks:
* Acquired and adapt global knowledge and
create knowledge locally.
* Invest in human capital to increase the ability
to absorb and use knowledge; and
* Invest in technologies to facilitate both
acquisition and the absorption of knowledge.
Similarly, Fafunwa (1979:26) defines
education as “the aggregate of all the processes
by which a child or adult develops the abilities,
attitudes and other forms of behaviour which
are of positive value to the society in which he
lives, that is to say, it is a process of disseminating
knowledge either to ensure social control
or to guarantee rational direction of the society
or both.”
Going by these explanation as to what
education is, in relation to the state of education
and its process in the country today as well as
the attitude of its providers-Government at all
levels and private investors; one with interest
will be compelled to ask such questions as what
has actually gone wrong considering the
enormity of its effect on the output from the
system in the area of productivity...