The provision of basic education in Nigeria - challenges and way forward

Abstract

The importance of education to human beings has been one of the highly emphasized issues in international documents. Education is a Human Right that should be accorded to human beings solely by reason of being human. There are a lot of International human rights instruments that provide for education as a fundamental human right. These include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (1966) among others. Nigeria is well aware of the commitments laid down by these international instruments and has taken steps to either sign, accede or ratify these instrument to show its commitment to adhering to the contents laid down in these instruments. This mini-dissertation focuses on the provision of basic education in Nigeria. It examines the contents of various international documents to which Nigeria is party and looks into the role Nigeria should play in providing education. In other words the extent of state parties obligation to provide education to their citizens. As commendable as these programmes and policies may be towards providing basic education, some social vices hinder the successful implementation of these programmes there by resulting in the inadequate provision quality basic education in Nigeria. Most importantly this mini-dissertation takes into consideration the extent of Nigeria’s commitments to the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to education stated in the general comment No. 13 on the right to education stated in article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. It takes into account, the extent to which Nigeria has adhered to the provision of article 13 of the ICESCR. The laws in Nigeria have also been found wanting with regard to international instruments which state the fact that education is a right which should be justiciable in various courts of law and not just a directive principle of state policy which is not justiciable. This mini-dissertation criticizes this notion of directive principle of State policy in the Nigerian Constitution and proffers some legal and non legal recommendations which can enable the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provide better quality education throughout the country. Finally, the private sector in Nigeria is examined as it also thrives to provide private schools as a multidisciplinary measure to fill in the lacunas left by the Nigerian Government in the area of providing basic education to the typical Nigerian who wants to acquire basic educational knowledge. Copyright