THE IMPACT OF POLITICS ON EDUCATION
(Nigeria A Case Study)
There is a thin line between politics and education in Nigeria. Politics fashions education and education modifies politics. And because of the relationship, there are impact of politics on education which is discussed in this article. Some of the relationship between politics comes before education, politics determines the type of education to be adopted, and the education of the youths is probably the most fundamental takes of society, political order of society sets a pace for education and politics is an aspect of the political needs of the society.
This means political system of a nation has an influence on the educational system. And this is why it is believed that the nation can outgrow the quality of it’s education. As it is known that politics involves the allocation of scarce social, economic, and cultural resources to individuals, groups, regions, and classes. The allocation that goes into education are politically influenced. For this reason, some nations like Nigeria fail to meet the UNESCO standard on the amount that should be allocated to education because of poor educational policy.
The state of education in Nigeria has been affected by the persistent change in the educational policy and poor funding. These two factors came to being because of poor political ideology in Nigeria. It is no news that most Nigerian Politicians often use sustainable development in education as a central manifesto in their campaigns. Instead of their campaign promises on education to yield positive results, it impacts on education negatively. Many people speak against this policy, but their voices make no difference because it was eventually implemented.
There have been a lot of policies that have been introduced by Politicians in Nigeria which have shipwrecked our education system. In fact, the faces and voices currently leading the education reform movement in Nigeria are appointees and self-proclaimed reformers who, while often well-meaning, lack significant expertise or experience in education. This is because the appointment or leadership position is politically attained. And this has resulted to negative educational policies and lead the country (Nigeria) into the following: Poor staffing and inadequacy of professionals, monetization of the admission process, incessant strike by ASUU, and Secondary school and Primary school teachers, dilapidated facilities for effective teaching and learning, Examination malpractice, and low quality of graduates among many.
Nigeria as a nation is yet to achieve the true dividends of democracy due to the margin which the political party members has drawn between themselves. Left for dead, the decisions of the political party has led to the dissatisfaction of it’s citizens in a bad shape. It is expected that to generate positive effects to all Nationalities after elections. In other words the government are expected to execute programmes that will alleviate the desires of the entire citizens.
The interaction of politics and education is not a new thing in Nigeria. Since the period of colonial administration, the planning, administration and management of education has been under the influence of political arrangements. Successive administrations in Nigeria have been using education through their manifestoes as a political tool. The inconsistency in the education policies and programmes especially for the underserved is as a result of the interplay between politics and education. The underserved groups in education include those that do not have equitable resources as other students in the education circle and those from minority ethnic groups among others. The political class does not show sincerity of purpose in ensuring that these educational policies are fully implemented in Nigeria for the benefit of all, but such policies are only used as “vote catching bait”.
Finally the role of government in the provision of quality education cannot be overemphasized. It is important, government place education in the water context of public service reform and invest in teacher professional development to ensure the high-quality teaching needed to succeed, as an essential element in fostering values of openness and democracy. And this can be archived when people with adequate experience or expertise and educators or scholars attain leadership positions responsible for forming and implementing educational policies that will develop the educational sector in Nigeria.
