WRITTEN BY MADUABUCHI DUKOR
Education is at the foundation of human development and the hinge upon which human civilization revolve.

  From the ancient to the modern, formal and informal education constitute an indispensable determinant for progress and productivity. In corroborating this fact, Socrates, the ancient Athenian philosopher says; “Unexamined life is not worth living”. 
In modern industrial democracies, education is lubricated and calibrated as the pivot of inclusive growth.  In such nations, member states of the United Nations, Africa inclusive, are enjoined to posit at least thirty per cent of their annual budget for education.  Unfortunately, most African states, Nigeria inclusive, are not compliant with the doctrine of necessity of Education as enshrined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Nigeria, in particular, has, by acts of omission and commission, rabidly sacrificed education at the altars of corruption, greed, and budgetary misappropriation.
In 2015, member countries of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They recognized that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and addresses a range of social needs, including education, health, social protection and job opportunities, etcetera.
Unfortunately, in most African countries, especially Nigeria, the quality of education is deteriorating. It is neither inclusive nor supported by adequate budgetary provisions. The academic staff union of Nigeria has, for many decades now, mustered a strong voice against the absence of infrastructure, laboratory, teacher’s welfare and conducive atmosphere for learning.  But conditions in the educational sector continue to worsen.
This, the United Nations Education, Scientific and cultural Organization (UNESCO) has captured vividly in her report indicting Nigeria and other African countries of lagging behind in global education goals. This is sad as Nigeria cannot continue to lag behind in vital and indispensable social policies critical to the society.
According to UNESCO in its latest Global Educational Monitoring (GEM) report, “in sub-Saharan Africa, 41 percent of children  of primary school age do not complete basic education, while 87 percent do not reach the minimum proficiency level in reading.  This means that one in every four people in the region could not read or write proficiently.  This also means that sub-Saharan Africa education index is below the benchmark of SDGs on education.
It is discouraging that the findings of Global Education Monitoring shows that most countries in Africa are yet to fully cater for their poorest children.  Despite the fact that less than half of low and middle-income countries had established for early childhood education, only a handful had mechanisms to monitor compliance, hence the typical Nigerian situation where “many children end up in overcrowded, poorly resourced low-fee private schools without qualified teachers and with inadequate infrastructure”. Nigeria can make progress and a better nation if education becomes inclusive such as to lift the poorest of the poor above poverty line.
Global Education Monitoring also revealed that, “around the world today two hundred and sixty-four million children do not go to school and almost two in ten children do not complete primary school. This, again, is a typical Nigerian case which needs to be tackled headlong.  Most girls in the Boko Haram ravaged North East and other parts of the Northern religion of Nigeria are completely out of school. This should be a special focus of government policy actions in the short and long term.
Suffice it to say that the quality of leadership depends on the quality of education and vice-versa. Also, people’s progress and happiness is, to a large extent, measured by the quality of education.  Therefore, the more the government spends on education, the greater the difference in the quality of life.  The more you sow the more you reap.

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