Education is the process of teaching someone especially in a school, college, or university. It is the process of passing the knowledge and skills needed for development and integration into society across to a group of people. Skills, in the preceding sentence, indicate that education is not just limited to bookwork but should also include many areas like the acquisition of music, art, social and physical skills.

In Nigeria, the educational sector is the responsibility of both the nation and private individuals. This is witnessed by the increase in the number of privately owned school facilities. This article focuses on education from the view point of the nation's responsibility. The educational system in the nation Nigeria has many shortcomings which will be addressed in this article.

The first and foremost shortcoming is the limitation of child learning. The children from a tender age are made to believe that bookwork is the only aspect of learning and are restricted from taking part in creative activities. This results in a child being developed mentally, but, unable to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in society. Growing up, the child eventually graduates from the tertiary institution and is unable to be fully integrated into society because he lacks the skills needed.

The style of teaching is also a cause for concern. The teaching style can be likened to that of a banking system; where an individual puts in a certain amount of money and expects to get that exact amount of money when he goes to withdraw it. The teachers teach children using a particular style, give them tests and exams, expecting them to answer in the same format in which they were taught. Any student who comes up with a different style is marked down and deemed intellectually poor. This does not leave room for a student actually understanding the concept as he has to cram to make his exams and soon forgets what he has learned.

Another challenge the educational system faces is the lack of passionate and trained teachers. The educational sector has become the last resort for graduates with no employment. These are individuals with no training in the art of education, but, who desire to survive and make ends meet. They are in it for the money and not because they are passionate about it. This results in the lowering of the quality of education offered to the students.

Lack of or poor infrastructural facilities is another challenge this sector faces. There aren't enough school buildings to go around for the population of students on ground. As a result of this, students have to travel a distance in order to attend the available schools. The schools available tend to have overcrowded classrooms with inadequate seats, hence, students can be seen sitting on the floors in a bid to learn. Some of the buildings are dilapidated and near collapse which poses a risk to the lives of the students studying in such a place. Most of the schools lack laboratories for the science courses, and where available, they tend to be ill equipped. The tertiary institutions also fall victim of inadequate and overcrowded classrooms. There are also not enough hostels to go round for the teeming students population and the available blocks are having one shortcoming or the other which makes them almost inhabitable for students.

Moreover, there is the case of corruption. Corruption is a disease which is not just limited to the political aspect of a nation but has also eaten into the educational sector. This is seen in the handling of money meant for the sector. Funds meant for education infrastructure, salary payments, maintenance, and running of schools and institutions are being diverted and mismanaged. Bribery and corruption is also practiced by the teachers, lecturers and school authorities. Funds are collected from the students in exchange for grades in their courses. This results in the production of half-baked students who are unable to prove their claims to certificates they hold. They end up posing a menace to society as they could stand as risks to lives, especially, if they are in the medical field.

Furthermore, there is the issue of poor welfare of teachers. The teachers are poorly and irregularly paid with no bonus or incentive to drive better performance. There is a generally accepted saying that goes: "a teacher's reward is in heaven". Here is the bone of contention: who would love to work at a job where the remuneration is not immediate or can only be gotten at death? Obviously, no one. Even in tertiary institutions, the issue of irregular payment of salary is also contended with. Due to this, the number of people willing to be involved in the educational sector are few which culminates in inadequate staffing. Also, the irregularity of salary results in the embarking on industrial action by the academic staffs of the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. This further results in the disruption of the studies of students as was witnessed in 2018, when an industrial action was embarked upon which lasted for five months. The students end up spending more time in completing courses which wouldn't have taken that long if the industrial action hadn't taken place.

Finally, the system of education has been discovered to be unable to bridge the gap between town and gown. Town as used here refers to the society at large while gown refers to graduation. The educational system has been shown to have only prepared students for competition within the four walls of an institution and has made it difficult for their integration into society. Due to this, a graduate is unable to get a job he should be qualified for because he lacks the necessary skills needed.

The education system should be planned in such a way that a student is able to become useful to society after graduation.
Having considered some of the challenges of the educational sector, efforts need to be made to remedy it. Some of the suggested remedies are high lighted below:

The educational plan should be made to include extracurricular activities which will go a long way in harnessing students creativity.

The teaching style should be one where ideas are exchanged, the teacher encourages students' creativity and goes the mile in making himself accessible by them.

Intending teachers should be made to undergo intensive training using up-to-date materials and technology to improve their ability to impart knowledge to the students.

Efforts should be made by the government to provide more school facilities and improve on those existing.

Regulatory bodies should be set up to monitor cases of corruption and the penalty for defaulters should be strictly adhered to.

Programs should be put in place to checkmate the irregularity of teachers salary as well as improve the teaching conditions while putting in place incentives to boost performance.

The education system should be planned in such a way that a student is able to become useful to society after graduation.

These suggestions if complied with and improved upon will go a long way in salvaging what's left of the educational sector.