Indeed, several sources have indicated that “seven per cent of the total students’ population in the United Kingdom are Nigerians.”
Also, according to a recent report published by the Abuja Inquirer, 74,000 Nigerians are currently studying in Ghana, while 8,000 are enrolled in U.S. universities.
In May 2015, while on a visit to the University of Lagos, the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Perry J. Calderwood, said there were (9,000) Nigerian students in universities across Canada.
In November 2012, Premium Times, citing a publication by a non-profit organisation, Exam Ethics International, reported that “Nigeria spends N1.5 trillion annually on students studying abroad,” describing the trend as “a huge economic loss” and the “greatest negative balance of payment any country can suffer.”
The drudgery
To many who opt for higher education abroad, it is the poor state of Nigerian universities that they find unacceptable. From teachers’ strikes to inadequate facilities, most public universities in Nigeria are in a bad shape.
“I left Nigeria after my first degree at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,” Ayodeji Kolawole who now studies Engineering in Canada told Tribune Education on Monday.
“My father spent a lot to make sure I came here (Canada). Education here is nothing like what we have in Nigeria. It will take us a long time to get to this level. The facilities are here. We are taught by people who are well motivated to teach. It’s just so good.”
However, there are scores of private universities in Nigeria – many of which were established specifically to address the rot in the public education system. However, recent surveys have shown that most of these institutions are severely under-subscribed.
Indeed, according to figures released by the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), a number of private universities received less than 10 applications each in the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME). This has been attributed to high cost, restrictions on student’s activities, and poor staff strength. It is, in fact, known that many lecturers in private universities are “visitors” from neighbouring public universities where they are permanently employed.
Space
According to information on the website of JAMB, nearly two million students sit for UTME every year, even though there are only about 500,000 spaces available in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
“Over one million candidates contend for less than 500, 000 spaces in Nigeria’s higher institutions yearly,” it said. “In 2014, the JAMB registrar stated that only 35 per cent of the 1,735,892 candidates that wrote the UTME in 2013 were admitted.”
Interestingly, there has been a sustained effort from various quarters to promote open and distance learning as a viable alternative to the conventional system, given the limitless scope of the ‘virtual space’.
Speaking recently at the inauguration of Augustine University, Ilara-Epe, Lagos, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, represented by the Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, described distance learning as the new trend in education.
“I must also say that we are in a period of change; and because we are in a period of change, we cannot continue to see education the orthodox way,” he said. “As we move on, we have to ensure that we provide education that is sustainable to our youth. We must see education in a way that is entrepreneurial; education that can empower and ensure that our citizens will earn jobs.
“We also have to realise that with the youth population that we have, there is no way we are going to meet the educational demands of our people through the conventional way. That is why I will seize this opportunity to let us know that besides the conventional way of education, the new trend in education is open and distance learning… That is why it is on record that China in a period of 15 years educated 500 million people through open and distance learning.”
In spite of the tremendous success recorded by NOUN and other institutions offering online programmes, there has not been any significant decline in the number of students seeking admission abroad.
Government-sponsored
Curiously, the Federal Government and some states in Nigeria have initiated programmes through which students are sponsored to study abroad. The Federal Ministry of Education, for example, through its Bilateral Educational Agreement Awards, offers undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships for courses in Russia, China, Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Romania, Serbia, Japan, Ukraine, Cuba, Greece, Czech Republic, Syria, Macedonia, Mexico, Egypt, and Tunisia.
In November 2014, the News Agency of Nigeria reported that the Kano State government spent N10 billion between 2011 and 2014 on 2000 students it had sponsored to study abroad.
“This is part of the state government’s effort to empower our youth to enable them to contribute their quota to the development of the state and the country,” Alhaji Ali Yako, the then Kano Commissioner for Higher Education was quoted as saying.
The Rivers State government, under Governor Rotimi Amaechi, sponsored “thousands of students” to countries like Canada, England, Scotland and India, under the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency (RSSDA), according to a report published by Sahara Reporters in May 2015.
Adequate funding as remedy
Professor Segun Ajiboye, the Zonal Coordinator (Southwest) and Chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) told Tribune Education on Monday that what he considered worrisome was the rate at which Nigerians patronised many of the low-grade universities in neighbouring African countries.
“In the real sense of it, there is nothing wrong with people going to study abroad. The sad aspect of it is when they go to these smaller countries, especially the West African countries, where the universities there cannot compare with the ones we have here. We have discovered that students now go to Ghana, Benin Republic, and the rest of them. And they are not even going to the reputable ones in Ghana, like the University of Legon. They are going to those mushroom universities in Ghana, where they are given degrees after only two years. And these are students, who ab initio, are not even qualified to apply to any university in Nigeria; many of them don’t have five credits. Who are their teachers there? Most of those universities operate from one-storey buildings.”
Admitting, however, that Nigeria loses billions of naira yearly as a result of student migration, Ajiboye said the government could help by funding its own schools better.
“That is why ASUU has always been calling the attention of the government to it,” he said. “We could mitigate this migration if we can adequately fund the universities in Nigeria. We can expand the carrying capacities of the existing institutions in Nigeria to make sure that they are able to absorb more students. If we do that then we will be able to reduce the amount that we spend on ventures that may not be worth it at the end of the day.”
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