Nigeria (Ch 18)

Nigerian education suffers due to a lack in government. Systems of education in other countries we’ve studied have a decided balance between centralized and disperse factors. The United States, for example, has federal guidelines that are then refined and carried out by individual states. France and Japan, however, have highly centralized educational standards and Germany, in contrast, has a dispersed model of education. Nigeria is faced with a dilemma; the country contains a vast range of distinct groups spread through separate urban and rural area, and there is no true precedent of a strong, accessible, nationalized education system. Nigeria is suffering the classic symptoms of other LTDCs; there are economic difficulties, although the country has natural resources such as petroleum; there is a colonial history that has resulted in internal fractions of diverse groups, now under the jurisdiction of a single government; there is very little funding for education and educators and consequently, the country experiences “brain drain.” Continued education in Nigeria is correlated with certain typical factors, similar to those we’ve seen in South America. First, there are religious schools that present an agenda separate to that of a typical public school. Second, the students cannot afford the “free” education because it often requires boarding and for parents to pay other expenses during their son’s education; also, it is typical for male students to have greater opportunities than female students because of the roles men and women often take in society.