Besides the gaps that were revealed within Nigeria’s healthcare sector by COVID-19, another sector of the economy that was badly hit by the pandemic was education. With schools having to shut down completely pre- and post- the nationwide lockdown, most students were left with no choice than to suspend their education until further notice. However, the challenges facing Nigeria’s education sector started long before the pandemic began.

Although the nation’s education system is subdivided into primary/basic, secondary and tertiary, this article focuses on the challenges associated with the tertiary educational system – with particular emphasis on low university admission rates, the poor university learning experience and possible solutions for resolving these age-long problems.

Good results are seemingly not enough

According to data from the Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (as reported by Quartz Africa in 2017), only 26% of the 10 million students who applied to Nigerian tertiary institutions between 2010 and 2015 gained admission. This leaves the remaining 7.6 million applicants with the choice of either going abroad to study (for the privileged few) or waiting another year, or more, to gain admission.

While limited university capacity has been blamed for this unfortunate situation, the above statistics does not account for applicants whose admission were denied due to delays in the release of their results or certain university policies which make their results invalid after some years. Unfortunately, even the applicants that get into the university immediately after their secondary education often have no guarantee that they will complete their courses in record time. This is partly because, ASUU strike has become a constant part of the academic calendar of Nigeria’s federal and state universities since 1999.

Would building more universities solve the problem?

Given the role that limited capacity plays in Nigeria’s low university admission rate, it’s only natural to assume that an adequate increase in the number of available universities should bring about improvements. However, with 19% of Nigeria’s over 200m population falling between 15 to 24 years, it would take much more than the 20 newly licensed universities to get the admission rates up. Besides, considering how much (a whooping N18 billion) is costing the federal government to build just four specialized universities, trillions of naira will be needed to build the required amount of universities. Assuming the federal government doesn’t have this huge amount of money to invest in building new universities, what other alternatives do we have?

How to make the most of what is available

According to the American business magnate and co-founder of Apple Inc, Steve Job, “Quality is more important than quantity”. Given the impracticality of investing trillions of naira towards new university build projects, a cost-efficient alternative that the nation should embrace is online education. Unlike traditional brick and mortar universities which are not only capital-intensive projects but unscalable, online education is scalable, flexible, and accessible. In fact, the flexibility offered by online education will also go a long way toward reducing incidences of university students kidnappings, particular for those in northwestern Nigeria. This is of course because online students can learn from home.

However, in order to maximize the benefits of online education, federal and private entities need to do the following:
1. Invest in internet infrastructure: Despite efforts made by the federal government of Nigeria to bridge the digital divide in the country, a recent report shows that only 85.49 million Nigerians have internet access. This leaves 58% of the nation’s total population without access. Given the importance of a strong and reliable internet connection in ensuring a good online learning experience for students, there’s a need to close this gap.

2. Provide incentives for online education: In addition to increasing internet access and ensuring the availability of a reliable internet connection, there’s a need to provide incentives such as free monthly data for students and tax reductions for private online universities. The implementation of such incentives will not only reduce the financial burden of purchasing data for students, but it will also encourage traditional universities to embrace the online learning model.

3. Emphasize skills acquisition, not memorization: Chief amongst the reasons why Nigerian university graduates have been marked as being unemployable is the quality of their university education. This can be put down to the large divide between what students learn in the university and the workplace requirements asked of their future employers. As such, online education shouldn’t be a replica of the traditional theory-based mode of learning. Instead, the focus should be on providing students with a competency-based education that promotes relevant skills acquisition and development.

Looking for an existing solution?

While the above recommendations will help to improve university admission rate and prepare graduates for the realities of the workplace, their implementation, if adopted, may take several years. Hence, if you are a secondary school leaver who wants to gain immediate university admission, learn from the comfort of your home and receive a competency-based education, then you should check out Nexford University’s undergraduate programs. Born online, Nexford University offers a 100% online, affordable and quality education designed to produce employable and business savvy graduates. By opting to study at Nexford University, you will be saying goodbye to ASUU strikes, admission delays and theory-based learning forever.