MANAGING THE NIGERIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM: A BLUEPRINT FOR ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION AND EMANCIPATION

Abstract

It is axiomatic to underscore that a well-managed education system is deemed globally a crucial prerequisite for not only the growth and development of every society or geopolitical space but also one of the veritable hallmarks of a diversified and functional economy that will, in the long run, culminate in economic emancipation of the people. The education industry faces enormous challenges in several African countries, and Nigeria is no exception. Even though education remains the bedrock or superstructure on which other societal structures such as politics, culture, religion, economics, etc. are laid; it is quite disheartening that education in Nigeria is not effectively and efficiently managed for economic diversification and the emancipation of the recipients of such education. Indeed, the industry faces innumerable challenges, especially in contemporary times when the education system is essentially functional. The hydra-headed nature of the challenges facing Nigeria’s educational system has inevitably resulted in different dimensions of economic quagmires entangling the country and making most of its citizens find it extremely difficult to escape and survive. The level of dysfunction in various sections of the education system has made it seemingly intractable to palliate the economic predicaments confronting the country, let alone emancipate it from the monoculture of its overdependence on oil. The authors of this treatise are diagnostic in their approaches to understanding the intricacies of the challenges facing the Nigerian education system and deprive it of being a veritable tool for a functional economy as well as a catalyst for the economic emancipation of its people. Through analyses of relevant literature, this paper amplifies the conceptual and operational dimensions of the identified challenges, offers probable suggestions on how the challenges can be tackled, and finally concludes