Introduction
According to Yoleye (1986), education is a process by which young people acquire the cultural heritage, knowledge, ideas and the civilization of the past as to able to take part in the civilization of the present and help build the civilization of the future. Education is an age long phenomenon in all societies; education takes various forms from one society to another. In Nigeria two forms of education were in existence before the advent of colonization. They are indigenous or traditional education and Islamic education.
The traditional education was practice in some part of the middle belt Nigeria. This truly affected the formal educational training in character, norms, agriculture, fishing, intellectual and other ways of life as approved by society. Islamic education on the other hand was practiced mainly in Northern part of Nigeria; it is based on the Quran. Both forms of education preceded the western education which was introduced to Nigeria in the 19th century by the European Christian Missionaries.
The advent of colonialism brought about formal education in Nigeria. The colonialist had to organize the training of the indigenous people to understand their language. The Christian missionaries organized schools and trained Nigerians in the art of reading and writing. The initial people that were trained in the communities became the first indigenous persons to be employed by the colonial government as interpreters, clerks and teachers.
It has been observed that education is considered as a long term investment that leads to a high production for a country in the future. In fact, economists argued that advance education sector will certainly lead to successfulness to a country economic and developing its educational sectors has been tremendous. Nigeria has allocated significant amount of funds to the educational sector and it keeps increasing each budgeting session. In addition, educations also improve efficiency of income allocation as labour mobility and transfer in accordance to work demand of trained workers. Education plays important role in human capital formation in economic development.
Human are the active agents who accumulate capitals, exploits natural resources, and political organization. In facts, a Nigeria budget allocation has affected its economy which has resulted into the devaluation of Nigeria currency for the educational sector. In achieving Nigeria developmental goals, the country’s economic growths are based on its educational strength.
The benefits of education in Nigeria alighted amongst are; Increase in productivity, labour income, economic growth and literacy rate. It is important to know that based on Nigeria consciousness of the aforementioned significance of education has now become matters of serious considerations.
Conceptual framework
According to Ukeje (1979), education is the process of recalling civilization of the past in order to understand the civilization of the present in the preparation for civilization of the future while also transmitting, preventing, developing and advancing the culture of a people
Whitehead (1929) stated that education at all levels influence general attitude, disciple and specific skills necessary for a variety of work places. It also contributes to economic growth by improving health, reducing unemployment and contributing to political stability. He further said that the concepts of federal government education expenditure have attracted a lot of comments, opinions and theoretical researches, economists and educational authorities. It is imperative to note some of these theoretical bases for the research and objective of the study.
In this regard, there have been numerous cross country studies, which have extensively explored whether the attainment of education can contributed significantly to the generation of overall output in the economy.
Objectives of education on economic growth
According to Yoleye (1980), education is a weapon for combating ignorance, poverty and diseases as a bridge between confusion and comprehension, as a dam for conserving man’s store of civilization and for the generation of power to move to greater civilization, as a rocket for transporting man from a state of intellectual subservience to a state of intellectual sovereignty.
Therefore the following, are objectives of education on economic growth as stated by Yoleye (1980);
- To distribute income more evenly among individuals and socio-economic growth.
- To reduce the level of unemployment.
- To achieve a better balance in development of different sectors of the economy and the various geographical area of the country.
- To increase the supply of high level manpower.
- To develop better and more efficient technology.
- To increase productivity of individuals in employment.
- To reduce rural-urban migration and to promote a national orientation towards greater discipline, better attitude to work and a concern for a cleaner environment.
Importance of education on economic growth
According to Yoleye (1980), education is a systematic process of developing the individual physically, mentally, spiritually, and society for his own benefit and for the benefit of the society in which he lives. Obanya (1983) in his contribution, education is any combination of the following characteristics, literacy, numeracy, possession of skills, the acquisition of knowledge, the ability to memorize and recite facts and figures and even schooling.
According to Obanya (1983), the following are benefits provided by education
- Changing in behaviour
- Creation of new ideas
- Transmission of culture
- Production of discipline
- Improve human capital development
- Reducing poverty incidence.
Education is a strong correlation with economic development. Islamabad, (2013), education is considered to have a strong correlation with social and economic development. In contemporary times when the focus is on the knowledge of economic and the role of education becomes all the more important in the development of human capital. After all a society of literate and skilled citizens has more chances of development at the economic and social levels.
Islamabad (2013) further added that education can reduce poverty and social injustice by providing the under privilege resources and opportunities for upward social mobility and social inclusion. The lack of political commitment of the state has resulted in multiple educational systems which are inherently discriminatory and biased in nature. A large number of students are unable to attend schools.
According to the Education for all Global Monitoring Report (2007), almost 6.5million children in Pakistan do not go to school. Countries like India, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Niger, and Kenya are placed in relatively better positions. The only country that has a worse situation than Pakistan’s is Nigeria, with more than eight million children out of school. The large number of students who made it to schools, however, drop out by class five. According to National Education Policy (NEP, 2013), about 72 percent make it to grade five which means a dropout rate of 28 percent. This significant figure further brings down the chunk the population of the school. Such a large number of students outside school means that they are deprived of the opportunity to learn and acquire skills for playing a meaningful role in society.
In the National Educational Policy (NEP, 2013) the publication identified social exclusion as a great loss at the individual and societal levels stressing that most of these out-of-school children experience poverty and unemployment and some get involved in criminal activities as well, constitutionally, the provision of basic education to citizens is the state’s responsibility. Is the state carrying out its responsibility? The state needs to analyze the reasons behind the number of out-of-school children. Some came from poor families and cannot afford the luxury of education despite their desire for it. The real issue of educational apartheid comes to the surface only after joining a school. Enrolling in a school does not ensure the provision of quality education. There is one question which a central to quality. What kind of situation is this? The answer to this question may include the state of the building, facilities, management, curriculum, textbooks, examination system and medium of instruction as well as the social economic background of the children. The reference to social economic background is crucial as schools like social classes are stratified in terms of social status, so social exclusion not only at the access level but also at the quality level. The difference between private and public schools is responsible for the gaping chasm between resources and opportunities given to the poor and the rich, children from elite school have enhanced chances of employment and social integration whereas children from public schools, no matter how bright they are, they are disadvantaged in term of getting exposure to quality education. The famous slogan for education is needed to be revisit. Is it sufficient to enroll every child in school? The continuance of disparity and exclusion goes on depending on the quantity of the school. This slogan needs to focus on quality education for all, It is the quality aspect within in missing in disadvantaged schools, Instead of taking some contractive measure to improved the conditions, the state is taking the easy route of offering private schools as an alternative.
Igwe (2000) stated that government officials give statements that public schools have failed and the only alternative left is private schools. I do not intend to underplay the significant role private school can play in the uplift of the educational system. My only contention is that they are there to complement the system and should not be presented as an alternative to public education. Education has failed miserably to reduce poverty gaps, social injustice and oppression. The education police suggest that the educational system of is accused to strengthening inequitable social structure as very few people from public sector educational institutions could move up the ladder of social mobility. What action plan has been given in the new education policy to ensure that this won’t happen in the future? Simply referring to a problem does not mean that is has been taken care of. The education policy should have given a clear and concrete blueprint to combat social exclusion, inequality and social injustice. The existing discriminatory educational systems are not only preparing the social economic gaps but responsible for future widening gaps.
In the meantime, Becker (1964) argued that a man would definitely invest in education as it will give him a promising return in the future. He assumed that, this rational decision makes the individual to assure that, the investment in education is efficient in terms of the cost, profits and opportunities cost that the person incurred while pursuing his education.
Romer (1990) assumes that the creation of new ideas is a direct function of human capital which manifest in the form of knowledge. As a result investment in human capital led to growth in physical capital which in turn leads to economic growth other studies supported the human capital accumulation as a source of economic growth.
Influence of education on economic growth
Education is the best legacy a country can give to her citizen. Igbuzor (2006) stressing the importance of education, stated that education is a human right that should be accorded to all human beings solely by reason of being human. Furthermore, he said that education improves the development of any society hence, the need for the educated ones to occupy significant positions in order to improve the society.
Therefore, schools at various levels are expected to educate future leaders and develop the high level technical capacities needed for economic growth and development (Osokoya, 2008). Undoubtedly Nigeria had witnessed a series of educational system since its birth in 1941. Immediately after independence in Nigeria, there were a lot of ills and shortcomings in Nigeria educational system as it was based on the British educational system which did not pave way for yearning needs, interests and aspiration of the Nigeria society. This gave birth to the 1969 curriculum conference that focused on Nigerian children in Nigerian society and National policies on education in 1977, 1981, 1998 and 2004 respectively (Federal Republic of Nigeria 1977, 1981, 1998 and 2004) all with the prime purpose of improving the quality of Nigerian education.
The utmost importance attached to education in Nigeria was clearly underscored in the National Education Policy (NEP, 2013). The Federal Republic of Nigeria, in this policy, adopted education as an instrument “par’ excellence” for affecting national development. In the face of government commitment to education, the quality of education in our schools has been declining tremendously. However, in this work, emphasis is made on the implication of the poor implementation of public secondary schools through the secondary Education Board. However, Nigeria having realized the effectiveness of education as a powerful instrument for national progress and development adjusted her educational philosophy and methodology to march the ideals and social structure of modern society.
Consequently, in 1982, Nigeria adjusted for secondary educational system to encompass diversified curriculum that integrates academic with technical and vocational subjects intended to empower the individual for self-employment (Igwe, 2000). The major policy speeches of late president Musa Yar Adua revolved around his aspiration of transforming Nigeria into one of the first 20 largest global economic by the year 2020. This vision cannot be achieved without youth empowerment for job creation and wealth generation. For Nigerian youth to be empowered economically, they should be given the necessary skill acquisition and in order to achieve this, the curriculum should be implemented effectively. The major curriculum revision upon which the National policy in 1981 and 2004 were based, against this background of national aspirations, a new educational system commonly referred to as the 6-3-3-4 system of education emerged. The system, which consisted of six years of primary school education, three years of junior secondary school education, three years of senior secondary school education and four years of post-secondary education, was implemented in 1982.
Osokaya (2008) stated that as a result of the poor implementation of the curriculum, the implications are as follow;
- The national economy will be affected. Education, as stated earlier in the introduction improves the development of any society. Nigeria youths who are the future leader need to be educated for them to be efficient leaders.
- Nigerian youths owning to unemployment are involved in various vices which is as a result of inadequate skilful training while in school to enable them become self employed if white collar job is not available.
- This is one of the major reasons why the developed countries view us as undeveloped. Technology has speedily advanced, countries and countries technologically advanced, develop speedily. The curriculum provides a venue for students be prepared technically but its poor implementation of educational policies as enshrined in the curriculum is affecting the individuals and the society at large.
Financing of education under the new national policy on education totally rest on the shoulders of federal, state and local government. Education is an expensive social service and requires adequate financial provision from all tiers of government for a successful implementation of the educational programmes. In this connection, government welcomes and encourages the participation of local communities, individuals and other organization (Osokaya, 2008).
Governments recognize the importance of technical and commercial education and need to relate its programmes to the requirement of commerce and industry. Formulae for collaboration and joint responsibility are already being carried out in schemes like the industrial training fund (ITF) and will be designed for sharing the cost burden between and public and private sectors. According to Yoleye (1980), several researches showed some of problem associated with economic growth; pupils do not go to primary schools because of schooling opportunity, cost, illness and hunger, limited economic cost of school include the cost of books, stationeries, basic equipment, uniforms, admission fees, registration and examination fess, then the opportunity cost of parent sending their children’s to school, at schooling times is the effect associate with education on economic growth.
Ways of promoting education and economic growth
According to Barro (1991), education is very important for Nigeria to increase the growth rate in other sectors of the economy. Therefore ways to promoting education is to financing education under the policy on education totally rest on the shoulders of federal, state and local governments. Education is an expensive social service and requires adequate financial provision from all tiers of government for a successful implementation of the education programmes. In this connection, government welcomes and encourages the participation of local communities, individuals and other organization.
Government recognizes the importance of technical and commercial education and the need to relate its programmes to the requirements of commerce and industry. Formulae for collaboration and joint responsibility are already being carried out in schemes like the industrial training fund (ITF) and will be designed for sharing the cost burden between the public and private sectors (Igbuzor, 2007).
References
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