Nigeria has a mountain to climb to ensure that its school-age children have access to basic but qualitative primary education

Wisdom Akpan is eight years old. He is not yet in school because his mother cannot afford to buy his school uniform. She says her income from petty trading is barely enough to feed him and his sister and cannot be stretched to cover the cost of sending him to a local primary school in Akamkpa local government area of Cross River State. Wisdom is one of millions of Nigerian children who have no access to basic primary education.

The latest global report on Education for All, EFA, published by UNESCO shows that Nigeria is falling behind in many areas. The statistics tell a grim story. In 2005, five million Nigerian children were out of school. The country accounted for almost a quarter of the total of children in Africa who had no access to education. Four years later, universal primary education is still beyond the reach of many Nigerian children and this is still likely to be so come 2015, the year when most children are expected to have opportunity to acquire basic education.

In 2006, Nigeria had more out-of-school children than any other country and was responsible for one in nine of the world’s total. Without dramatic changes, the country will not achieve the lofty goals set in 2000 at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, to create and expand learning opportunities for all children, youths and adults by 2015. Unless the country changes its trajectory, current projections suggest that it will have the largest number of out-of-school children by 2015, followed by Pakistan.

To change its direction, Nigeria has to tackle three key problems. Firstly, it has to address wide geographical disparity in enrolment figures in different parts of the country. In 2006, the net enrolment ratio for the South-West was 81 percent but 42 percent in the North-West. Secondly, the country has to narrow a wide gender gap in primary schools, especially in the North where only 40 percent of girls are enrolled in primary school. The number for the South-East is 80 percent. Thirdly, barriers created by income inequalities have to be removed to ensure that children, particularly girls, from poor households have a chance to go to school.

In principle, primary school in Nigeria is supposed to be free but many children do not have access to basic primary education and enrolment remains uneven. Children like Wisdom are still denied access because their parents cannot afford to buy school uniforms and pay informal charges imposed by schools. In the North, cultural attitudes also raise a variety of obstacles against girls as parents who do not value western education often choose to marry them off instead of investing in their education. Given these problems, Nigeria’s chances of meeting the 2015 education goals are slim.

The ambitious goals for EFA adopted by governments from 164 countries, nine years ago, cover six key areas: Expansion and provision of comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children; access to universal primary education for all children; meeting lifelong learning needs of youths and adults; improvement of adult literacy, especially for women; achieving gender equality and improvement of quality of education.

Although some progress has been achieved, the latest global EFA report suggests that the goals are still under threat of not being achieved. Koïchiro Matsuura, the director-general of UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for co-ordinating efforts to achieve EFA, says universal primary education will not be achieved by 2015.  In some cases where access to education is available, the goal of quality education will still not be achieved because millions of children in schools are not getting functional education. In the foreword to the seventh EFA global monitoring report, Matsuura writes:  “Too many children are receiving education of such poor quality that they leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills.”

The EFA global monitoring report titled ‘Overcoming Inequality: why governance matters,’ focuses on disparities in access to education due to gender, income, location and ethnicity. The report underscores the impact of policies that create barriers for children. Some of these policies fuel poverty, which in turn denies millions of children access to education, or when they have access are incapable of maximising their opportunities because “children whose lives are blighted by hunger, poverty and disease are clearly not equipped to realise their potential in education.”  But beyond the immediate effect of poverty are long -term social, human and economic consequences. As the report states, some governments do not treat the crisis in education as an urgent priority, a suggestion that they do not appreciate quality basic education as one of the foundations for socio-economic growth.

The report card is not all in red. Some countries have registered significant achievements in their pursuit of the EFA goals. Ethiopia, Benin Republic and Tanzania have achieved impressive gains in school enrolment. These were realised through the elimination of school fees and international aid. Although Nigeria is wealthier than these countries, they are greatly out-performing the oil producing country.

Part of Nigeria’s problem is substantial disparity in attendance rates. In Anambra and Ondo states, the rates are up to 80 percent but stand at less than 30 percent in Zamfara and Jigawa. The country’s revenue allocation strategy works against improvement in attendance rates as it does not favour states with poor results. For example, Lagos State, with a higher attendance rate, receives about five times as much revenue as Jigawa, and in principle has more capacity to invest in schools. The EFA report states that Nigeria’s revenue allocation strategy has “reinforced regional disparities in education.”

In addition to fiscal hurdles, poor national planning also compounds Nigeria’s problems, as there are no “statutory accountability mechanisms to ensure that state and local government areas, plans, where they exist, are aligned with national goals in education.” Consequently, there is no uniformity in the implementation of programmes.

To enhance chances of achieving the EFA goals, Nigeria and other underachieving countries have to increase public investment, equip schools, increase the number of trained teachers and eliminate social disparities. The EFA report says that such actions must be clearly linked to poverty elimination if success is expected. In Tanzania where the relationship between education and poverty has informed policy, there has been tangible success. 

For Nigeria, achieving the EFA goals within the next six years will require a great deal of commitment, for in addition to the millions of out-of-school children, the country has a large number of young people who have either never attended school or left school without acquiring skills needed to make a living or participate meaningfully in society. This makes the need to achieve the EFA goals even more critical. As Nelson Mandela put it: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Without laying a solid foundation through quality and functional education, economic, social and political growth cannot be taken for granted in tomorrow’s world.