Education has been described as a mode through which an individual obtains the requisite physical and social abilities or competencies needed for the development of a society. It is also a system by which the necessary knowledge and understanding are gained through the methods of teaching and learning. The role education plays in the national development of any nation cannot be over-emphasized. It has indeed been established that no country can develop beyond her educational level. And the realization of the economic development, advancement, or independence of any nation is a function of the educational capacity of the working class or the decision-makers of that nation.
Globally, education is seen as a veritable and strategic venture pivotal to economic transformation of any nation The importance of education is not only in the area of providing the much-needed human capital or resources but it also acts as an agent in developing the necessary technological tools and know-how for the economic development of any society. Many discoveries have been made through researches, which have tremendously contributed to a shift from the manual mode to the electronic-enabled methods of production in every sector of the economy among which are the service, manufacturing or mining sectors.
There is bequeath to his or her children because it helps children to develop their innate abilities and skills which they can readily deploy in proffering solutions to any problem or challenges that may confront them in life. In this regard, education is seen as an investment in human capital development. Thus for any nation to maximize the benefits of education for her sustainable development, such nation must invest heavily in the education of its citizenry. This is one of the reasons the importance of education will continue to receive the attention of all stakeholders both at the local, state, and federal levels in Nigeria.
Nigeria got her independence from the British government in 1960 and since then there has not been any appreciable development as the economy is still in comatose stage despite huge financial resources that have accrued to her The standard of education has continuously been in downward trend due to underfunding whereas the enrolment at all level of education has been on the increase. The quality and standard of education in Nigeria cannot be compared with what is obtainable in developed nations which is directly or indirectly undermining its development process.
Orji and Job are of the opinion that in order to position the Nigerian economy for a more desirable and meaningful development, the challenges facing the Nigerian educational sector and its reforms should be approached in a more pragmatic manner that would ensure sustainability, soundness, and healthy environment in the system. The government at all levels should desist from paying lips services to many problems facing the sector which is considered pivotal to the economic transformation of any nation.
In Nigeria, one of the challenges in the education sector is the skewness nature in the trend of recurrent expenditure on education. In 2015 and 2016, the federal government budget for education was N392.4billion and N369.6 billion representing 15.05% and 9.32% respectively of the total budget. This shows the insensitivity of the government to educational development when compared to Ghana 31% allocation of budget to education. This allocation is far below the 26% recommended by the United Nations Education, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for developing countries. The underfunding has resulted to frequent and unabated clampdown on schools through strike actions usually embarked upon by teachers/lecturers, paucity of instructional materials, poor infrastructural facilities thus making teaching and learning un-conducive. It is worrisome that virtually all tertiary institutions in Nigeria lack basic facilities for teaching and learning such as well-equipped laboratories, residential and lecture halls, security and healthcare for both the students and lecturers. While over ten million children are still out-of-school, underfunding is seriously affecting the quality of teaching and learning in 187 institutions which comprised of federal universities (40), federal polytechnics (21), federal colleges of education (22) and unity colleges (104) aside state educational institutions.
It has clearly been brought to fore that in order to revive the Nigerian economy, there is an urgent need to aggressively and purposefully fund education sector with a view to generating the needed human capital capacity. It would be absolutely impossible for Nigeria to realize her dream of being among the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 if the present status of her educational sector remains unchanged in view of the latest ranking as enunciated above. The strategic sectors of the Nigerian economy like power, health, education, agriculture, manufacturing and ICT needs competent professionals to survive and upturn the current economic woes. This can only be realized if sufficient funds are invested in the education sector which is the backbone of any economy.
The question is how can meaningful research and discovery be carried out in the face of these myriad problems? Until this challenge is reasonably overcome, Nigeria will continue to look up to developed nations for transfer technology. It is based on this backdrop that this paper intends to critically look into the strategic importance of education in achieving the needed development in an economy.
A closer and critical assessment of primary and secondary schools funding showed insignificant correlation with the GDP. This portends critical implication to the growth of the national economy because these segments of the educational level are foundational to any educational endeavor or pursuit. If the foundation is not solid then, the performances at the institutions of higher learning will be negatively affected. There is the need to fund education with a view to positioning the sector for more robust performance in order to lift the productive capacity of the economy.
The current sectorial allocation to education from the National budget, cannot help to achieve the needed economic growth and development. It is therefore recommended that the government should endeavour to meet and even strive to exceed the 26% benchmark allocation to education as recommended by UNESCO.
