Few questions in emerging economies touch history, identity, and democracy as deeply as access to education. In both Belgium and Nigeria, educational infrastructure sits at the very heart of how we cultivate citizens, build communities, and shape national belonging across generations. Yet, when demand for quality education outstrips supply, governments face a critical crossroads: do they ration opportunity through protectionist policies, or do they expand capacity to build a more competitive workforce?
The debate witnessed this week in Belgium over restricting access to Dutch-language education in Brussels offers a profound, cautionary lesson for African policymakers, particularly in Nigeria. When public policy seeks to guard educational resources for a specific group rather than scaling them up for the collective good, it treats development as a zero-sum game. True economic diplomacy and sustainable growth dictate the opposite: success should invite expansion, not restriction.
The traps of rationing opportunity
In Brussels, a proposal to reserve a greater proportion of school places exclusively for native Dutch-speaking families stems from a defensive reflex to protect cultural institutions. Acknowledging the historical struggle behind that identity is important, but we must ask a more vital public policy question: Is restricting access ever the wisest way to strengthen an educational system?
The answer is an emphatic no. The overwhelming demand for these schools from non-native, international, and francophone families is not a threat; it is a resounding validation of public policy success.
As a Nigeria-qualified teacher who later served as a Belgian municipal policymaker for almost two decades, the last six years of which was in social affairs, I have viewed this dynamic from multiple vantage points. My children passed through this system. Today, my grandson is being raised at home bilingually in Dutch and English. These experiences have long convinced me that inclusive, multilingual education is a quiet engine of economic competitiveness.
Decades ago, some naturalised African diaspora friends of mine relocated from Belgium to the United Kingdom, convinced that an English-only education would better prepare their children. Those of us who stayed, including those whose kids were born outside Belgium, saw our children gain native proficiency in Dutch, functional French, and a working knowledge of German, all while maintaining English at home. Today, in the global labour market, that linguistic dexterity is a massive competitive asset.
The Nigerian parallel: Education as an economic engine
This lesson hits incredibly close to home for Nigeria and the wider African continent. As we navigate the complexities of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and seek to position our youth for global relevance, our educational policies must move away from the management of scarcity.
Whenever public demand exceeds available supply, the traditional bureaucratic response is to ration. We see this in Nigeria’s hyper-competitive tertiary admission systems and the structural bottlenecks facing primary and secondary schooling. But history judges the alternative option much more kindly: investing in capacity.
If an educational pathway, be it specialised technical schooling, language immersion, or digital literacy programs, is yielding high-quality graduates, the appropriate response is to aggressively invest in more classrooms, better teacher welfare, stronger infrastructure, and expanded access. Narrowing the circle of beneficiaries only chokes off human capital development.
Furthermore, there is an undeniable economic dimension. Just as Brussels’ labour market rewards multilingualism, the modern African economy rewards adaptability, cross-border communication, and technical excellence. Why would any forward-thinking nation intentionally reduce access to its greatest competitive advantages?
A shared project of scale
Good public policy enlarges opportunity rather than redistributing scarcity. Protectionism and promoting excellence are not competing objectives; they reinforce one another. A balanced, growth-oriented policy matrix must pursue both simultaneously: Guarantee meaningful institutional standards. Expand educational infrastructure aggressively to match demographic realities. Encourage cross-cultural and technical excellence as a defining national strength, rather than treating diversity or migration as a zero-sum competition.
Our educational policies should never simply be about deciding who to keep out of our classrooms. They must be about ensuring that everyone who leaves them is fully equipped to understand their neighbours, navigate global markets, contribute to their communities, and strengthen the economy they share.
Schools do far more than teach curriculum or languages. They cultivate the very citizens who will drive tomorrow’s economic diplomacy. It is time our investment strategies reflected that truth.
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