Education Transformation for Sustainable National Development Needed in Nigeria

Abstract

Education has always been the very root of human development and progress. Even when things go awry in a society and the people become dejected, education is the means of bringing hope and smiles back to them. Hence, all nations pay attention to education, allocating to it significant time and resources. If Education becomes a static business, it would never be able to meet the society’s desires. The curriculum, which is the educator’s major device of meeting the people’s expectations, is particularly prone to change, but the change must not be haphazard; it has to be transformation oriented and cost-effective. If the gains of an education are not transformational, especially in an increasingly competitive world, all investments in the education are wasted, as the investors would soon be overtaken by poverty and neglect. It requires the commitment of all stakeholders to make education work. Academic opinions and practices count so much in the matter – their unending but reasoned discourse should provide the firework needed in socio-economically, politically and technologically transforming the society. Thus, this paper attempts to link sound education with national development and integration. It argues that an education with faulty primary and tertiary components leads nowhere, and it identifies and explains the problems confronting primary and tertiary education in Nigeria before suggesting the steps that can be taken to solve such problems.