Education for development

One way in which developed countries continue to be different from the developing world can be found in the organic linkage between the knowledge industry on one hand and the policy world on the other. Whenever problems occur in the world of policy, it automatically falls on the educational institutions in such countries, particularly the universities, to offer solutions.

This is why it is often said that World War II, for instance, was fought not just with mortars, guns and bombs, but the men and women in the universities also played a large, if invisible, role in ensuring the demise of Nazi Germany. Even during the Cold War, very much the same situation could be observed. It is appropriate to note here that when the Russians beat the Americans in the race to outer space, one of the initial reactions of Washington was to revamp its educational system.

By contrast, the organic linkage between educational institutions and the policy world is largely absent in Nigeria and, by extension, the rest of Africa. It is even arguable that our national problems remain largely unsolved because of the compartmentalisation which hallmarks the educational system and the policy world. And even where they get solved, more often than not, we have had to call in outside experts to help out.

The upshot of the immediate foregoing is that there is virtually no relationship between what passes for education and pressing national issues. A number of reasons could well be responsible for this anomaly. Perhaps the most obvious of this could be the colonial factor. It was a situation in which education was largely viewed as an instrument for keeping the colonial racket going.

Invariably, in the ensuing post-colonial period, education maintained this classical and historical role, and to this extent, national issues and problems were essentially divorced from the educational portals.

In the face of this, there is need for educational institutions to begin to respond directly to the fundamental problems in their immediate environment. Even the Bible amply lends credence to the need for a relationship between the world of books and reality when it declared that “my people perish for lack of knowledge”.

Indeed, this lack goes a long way to explain why Nigeria, with its extensive arable land, cannot feed itself. This paradox is thrown into sharper relief by the fact that ours is a country teeming with universities where Agriculture is studied as a major subject. The omniscient observer is then forced to ask about the instrumental dimension which is supposed to underpin the study of agriculture in Nigeria.

Of course, in view of this rather embarrassing paradox, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the study of agriculture is confined to the classrooms and the world of theories, whose minimal impact can be observed in the shame of a country which continues to import its food requirements. More unfortunately, the sorry gap which has been identified here has been replicated in virtually every area of our national life.

On this note, what readily comes to mind here is what passes for our oil industry. Although oil was discovered in commercial quantities way back in 1956, the academic disciplines which would have helped us to understand the oil industry did not come on board until the 1970s. Whereas, and by contrast, as soon as Norway discovered oil in its territory, one of her first steps was to establish relevant tertiary and sub-tertiary institutions such that within a very short time, a measure of autonomy was acquired in her oil industry.

Against this background, there is the fundamental need for a rethink of education and its ends. Clearly, education for the sake of education has not taken us far. Such education, as an end in itself, has only succeeded in deepening the throes of our underdevelopment. Therefore, there is the need for an overhaul of our various curricula. The envisaged and reformed curricula must be such that will provide answers to the various problems in our country. This is one credible way in which we can overcome the various problems that continue to assail us as a nation. It is time to press education into the service of the country.