The concept of Free Education looks appealing in the context of the number of people in a country whose can afford basic needs and the many who cannot. Provision of education is paramount to any people and for development of a skilled workforce and the country’s future.
Without education, there is every chance that all that has been achieved by any leadership shall be wasted by the trailing generation of children and future leaders.
With a highly educated population, a country can set its goals for the future assured that there will be sustainability of such objectives. Similarly, a country would reply more on her own intrnal human resources than the importation of skilled manpower at higher than local costs.
Politics wil improve with better education. Thise in leadership would have the basis for taking decisions which assist in development having established appropriate parameters and bases on a clear understanding of needs and capacity.
A population with a high-level of education and within in a democratic dispensation would show a better understanding of the democratic process and the rights therein.
Organisations, both Private and Public, would benefit a great deal from an educated workforce. Processes and productivity stand a better chance of increase with educated personnel.
The quality of the output of graduands from educational institutions would be better and increase exponentially as more leave the academic institutions and join the workforce or marketplace.
Through the tiers of education; Primary, Secondary and Tertiary; there are issues of cost and timeline to consider for each student.
Most of all and over above the availability of resources is the cost of education.
When standards fall within an education system, people are forced to seek alternatives for their wards.
Better schools are usually a function of cost and distance. They are not usually found in the public schools system in Nigeria at Primary and Secondary School levels.
The advent of privately-run academic institutions at all levels is a result of the fall instandards in schools, colleges and universities in Nigeria.
The concept of Free Education does not marry with the costs of offering high standards and maintaining facilities by private operators of schools.
Governments that pursue free Education in Nigeria are faced with enourmous problems and issues.
Some of these are related to the education sector whilst others are as a consequence of other priorities to be faced by those governments.
The question arises whether education can be offered to citizens free of charge with its burden of costs and administration alongside.
In Nigeria, the notion of free Education has been a carrot offered by successive governments from the moment of political campaign.
The successes or failures of the systems thereafter remain a subject for debate.
Overall, there has been a fall in standards in the Public School system and one of the reasons attributed to this decline is the fact that, the cost of administration has not been met by many governments.
Education being grossly underfunded consistently leads to lower quality teaching, poorer facilities, inadequate learning resources and frequent stops and starts due to industrial action by teaching staff ocer unpaid salaries.
On the other hand, private investors in education who offer better facilities and teaching services in their institutions are driven by the need to achieve bottomline hence the higher costs of education in their sector.
Where is the middle ground if any for both public and private education in Nigeria?
Should government hands off administering education and remain a supervisory authority while schools and education is administratively run by private sector individuals and institutions?
Should government jointly participate in the provision of education by subsidizing ‘public’ schools while leaving the ‘private’ schools to market forces?
In my opinion, the concept of free Education in Nigeria is dated and near-impossible to maintain.
Whilst it may win a few votes and voters’ support, it has proven extremely difficult to sustain in the light of other priorities government has to face.
A return to partnership is what is required where proper educationists and institutions are supervised by government guidelines whilst the administration is retained in the hands of such educationists or institutions.
Government is already carrying too much burden and overheads in the education sector and the quality and standards are suffering for it.
Rarely in the fee-paying private sector do we have the type of frequent industrial action we see in government-run or public school system.
Parents, regardless of their standing in society are duty bound to pay albeit nominal fees for better education of their children. Those who can will do so for the more expensive schools while those less well off will do so within the subsidized public school system.
It is a falsehood that in Nigeria today we can have free Education in its totality, then again, what do I know about administering schools and bearing the burden of associated overheads.
What do you think?
