Tope Imasekha, CEO/co-founder at Edugrant.ng has listed under-skilled manpower, outdated curriculum, insecurity, inadequate funding, and non-availability of learning resources as gaps that must be bridged to give a Nigerian child access to quality education.
Imasekha, in a paper titled “Five issues we must address now for every child to access quality education” in Nigeria, lamented that in some parts of the country, the teaching profession was not valued nor accorded the dignity because of under-skilled manpower.
“In some cases, underqualified persons who are not properly trained apply for these jobs and are considered. When the young people are not well guided, their future is at stake,” he said.
The expert also decried the use of outdated curriculum in most schools in the country. He said: “Most of the Nigerian education curriculum is still based on the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme that was adopted in 1981. The world is currently evolving and so is education.
Read also: Group condemns ‘hurried child syndrome’ education in Nigeria
Another downside of the curriculum is that it is not unified. Some schools teach Quranic curricula, others follow a Montessori programme, and yet more follow other curricula. Learning is not static, it is progressive in nature and there are changes that need to be accommodated into the system.”
On insecurity, he said the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents and other forms of insecurity have heavily impacted education, leading to an increasing number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
He also decried the poor funding of education in the country saying “UNESCO recommends that 15 percent-26 percent of the national budget should be allocated to education.
In 2018, only 7 percent of the national budget was allocated to education; in 2020, it was 6.7 percent. This is far below what is expected.”
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