- Too many Nigerians study abroad
While the high number of Nigerian students undergoing educational courses abroad attests to both their intelligence and their determination to better themselves, it is also a worrying reminder of the fact that the country’s educational system is not all that it should be.
The latest manifestation of the Nigerian love for foreign education was shown on September 28, when the Consul-General of the United States Embassy, Mr. John Bray, stated that over 10,000 Nigerians had been admitted to study at American universities in 2017.
There are thousands of Nigerian students scattered across the world. The United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) Institute of Statistics (UIS) claimed in March this year that Nigeria has 1.4 million students enrolled at home, while 71,351 have gone abroad to study. By some estimations, the country’s foreign student legion grew by 45 per cent between 2010 and 2013.
The number of Nigerians studying in the United Kingdom trebled between 2004 and 2012, and hit 17,973 in 2016. Malaysia has about 13,000 Nigerian students. There are about 9,000 of them in Canada. Even neighbouring Ghana played host to 75,000 Nigerian students as far back as 2014. South Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe are also favoured destinations.
Nigeria’s penchant for migrant scholarship has come at a huge financial cost. An estimated US $2 billion is spent on school fees abroad annually, in spite of economic recession and the consequent rise in the value of the dollar.
There can be little doubt that the size of Nigeria’s foreign student legion demonstrates a profound lack of faith in the country’s educational system. Beset by infrastructural challenges, inadequate facilities, badly-paid and poorly-motivated staff, and unstable academic calendars, Nigeria is certainly not an educational Eldorado.
A significant proportion of student outflow is also ego-driven. Far too many members of the elite, especially politicians, celebrities and the nouveau riche send their offspring abroad simply because of the perceived social prestige it will bestow on them.
There are social consequences to this educational hemorrhage as well, since most of the very best students are often encouraged to develop their working careers abroad instead of returning to their home country. Many of those who return struggle to find their feet, as they confront social conditions very different from the relatively efficient societies they studied in.
Educational exchange is not bad in itself. When students study in other countries, they acquire ideas, skills and technologies that can spur growth in their home countries. Diplomatic and cultural relations are especially enhanced by such people-to-people ties; individuals who have studied in other countries tend to have favourable views of those nations.
However, the Nigerian situation is very different. For one thing, it is not an educational exchange. For all the thousands of students going abroad, there is very little traffic coming in the other direction; almost no Nigerian university can boast of European or American nationals in its lecture theatres.
For another, the economic cost is unsustainable. The country simply cannot afford the hundreds of millions of dollars that are spent on overseas education annually. Except in a few cases, the courses being studied do not provide value for the money spent to acquire qualifications in them, and would be far more cost-effective if viable alternatives could be found at home.
If the massive outflow of Nigerian students is to be reduced, local schools will have to provide services similar in quality to those being sought so assiduously abroad. Infrastructural deficiencies must be corrected; salaries and conditions of service for staff should be improved; teaching and research should be benchmarked against globally-accepted standards.
It is telling that foreign educational institutions regularly organise career fairs in Nigeria in their efforts to market themselves to prospective students. In contrast, Nigerian schools complacently wait for candidates to come to them!
