Education has impacted many people in Nigeria. The most educated people in Africa come from Nigeria.
How do you gauge whether someone is educated or not?
In many parts of the world, the answer relates to the level of academic qualifications they achieve when they are young – do they have a university degree? In what subject and from what institution?
This appeals to the sense that education is something earned and to the belief that schools and universities have the authority to say who is (and who is not) educated.
It’s also how economists and social scientists define someone’s education level and link that to what their health and social outcomes might be later in life.
Education improves national development through technological advancement in all sectors of the economy and causes an increment in production and overall development.
It also helps eliminate the traditional ways of operation by introducing technology that will make citizens comfortable and ensures the country’s growth and development.
Education helps provide employment opportunities for enlightened people and increases the chances for a better life.
It also eradicates idleness and laziness as it ensures that youths are engaged in a productive course that adds value to a country’s development and improves their well-being.
Many women and men, of different ages, continuing to work on their claims to an educated identity throughout their lives.
They do this by wearing the right clothes, but also by joining committees, being active in church, speaking what is considered the right sort of English, and presenting their arguments in the “logical” way that those with a good education have been trained in.
They are doing what they do because being educated has benefits.
In this part of Nigeria, educated people tend to prevail in disputes and fare better with various authorities; they are also more likely to benefit from government and NGO schemes.
People can work on their educational status throughout life, and that much of the work of being educated is only indirectly tied to the schooling experience.
Policymakers miss this point. They assume that formal qualifications are the best measure of educational status. But “being educated” is not only about the credentials you have: it is also about how others credential you.
We believe that understanding these dynamics is key for policymakers and researchers, who (in Nigeria and many other parts of the continent) define educational status through the formal qualifications a person has. They focus on the health or social benefits that come from “human capital”.
Policymakers needs to be encouraged to rethink how education is understood so that it comes to be defined as an accredited status – how people evaluate it– as well as a credentialed one – the papers you carry in your pocket.
Investing in areas that shape accreditation would be a way of helping more people access opportunities.
This might mean offering classes to help adults improve their skills in spoken English, or giving people access to training in the sort of bookwork that committees value.
Education has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on how we apply it.
It can get better if Nigeria utilize the system’s positive features while attempting to make improvements to its negative features.
However, since education is the driving force behind every nation’s advancement, it is crucial to prioritize it since it helps a nation’s economy expand and improve.
Above all, Nigerians ought to use this type of education as a weapon to promote national growth while protecting our culture, norms, and tradition for a better country.