Save Nigeria’s economy, rescue our education

As Nigeria’s education system teeters on the brink of disaster, the consequences of inaction could be catastrophic, with millions of children denied access to quality education and the nation’s economic future hanging in the balance. The sector faces an existential crisis, with threats coming from poor and inadequate infrastructure and teacher training, and more importantly, […]

As Nigeria’s education system teeters on the brink of disaster, the consequences of inaction could be catastrophic, with millions of children denied access to quality education and the nation’s economic future hanging in the balance. The sector faces an existential crisis, with threats coming from poor and inadequate infrastructure and teacher training, and more importantly, a ravaging ambition to obtain qualifications without studying for them.

Nigerians are ambitious people, as the whole world acknowledges. There is nothing wrong with that. This has set Nigerian men and women apart as they have earned laurels and distinguished themselves in various fields at home and abroad. Yet, Shakespeare’s admonition that “Ambition should be made of a sterner stuff” still retains its relevance to the world today.

Unfortunately, that ambition has been overshadowed by misguided or misplaced priorities. Ours has become a nation where parents want to produce medical doctors who cannot dissect frogs in the lab. They want to produce chief accountants who cannot read balance sheets, among other items on our list of ambitious goals. They forget that their actions can have negative consequences.

To achieve these ends by whatever means, the parents acting in conjunction with their wards, the so-called preparatory centres, and examiners have raised the methods of cheating to a new height, aided by the evolving technological progress. As JAMB’s Special Committee on Examination Infractions discovered, “Eighty per cent of infractions is caused by parents who want to give marks to their children that they don’t deserve,” according to the committee chairman, Dr. Jake Epelle.

• Reactions trail Senate’s rejection of Natasha’s resumption after 6 months suspension
• Foundation launches project for grassroots governance

Cheating in our examinations is fast becoming the “normal” as JAMB has just reported to Nigerians following the discovery of a committee it set up to probe the 2025 debacle. Yet, this “normality” must be called by its name; it is still unacceptable, because it undermines the value of education and the legitimacy of academic achievements paraded by the cheats. Cheating in examinations means that we might be producing educated youth who cannot play the roles that their educational qualifications are expected to enable them to play in society, including the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and essential skills in the emerging world of technology.

The committee discovered smart moves by Nigerians to circumvent the use of biometrics that are working in other places as a means of identification. So, the committee discovered “4,251 cases of fingerprint manipulation and 192 instances of AI-assisted impersonation” in one UTME cycle. There were also 1,878 false declarations of albinism recorded, with photos manipulated to impersonate other candidates.

If such parents go to these extremes because they want their children to be awarded scores that they do not merit in JAMB examinations, it is certain that they would do the same for WAEC and other qualifying examinations. Therefore, as they have their ways, their children end up passing examinations that they are not prepared to pass and subsequently get admitted into universities to study the courses they are not qualified for or supposed to be admitted into.

This explains the correlation between the JAMB fiasco and the WAEC leakage that the country witnessed this year. Those discovered by the Board to have cheated most likely also to have done so with WAEC and other examinations, and without serious actions being taken now, there is no hope of the challenge disappearing soon.

They also possibly cheat their way into the higher institutions (is it possible or impossible?), graduate, and obtain qualifications they do not merit. And finally, they possibly cheat their way through again (some of them already have jobs waiting for them, by virtue of connections), and they occupy positions they do not merit and begin to do the jobs they are not qualified to do.

This is the evil cycle that must be broken, now. Imagine some of these people above are medical doctors? Or accountants? Or architects or engineers?  The potential consequences of these possibilities establish the fact that the nation’s educational system is indeed under an existential attack. Nigeria faces the possibility of having a dysfunctional education system that produces graduates who are irrelevant to its needs because there is no value behind the qualifications that some of the graduates carry.

Nigeria clearly needs a policy reform in the education sector. The new curriculum introduced is just the starting point. The government must develop a unifying philosophy to establish a clear vision for the country’s educational system, setting priorities and accessibility. Among other things, it will address the challenge of funding, which currently is the lowest among Nigeria’s peers.  In 2020 and 2022, for instance, Nigeria’s expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was 0.4 per cent in 0.3 per cent, respectively, versus 4-6 per cent recommended. This is part of the problem.