NIGERIA’S EDUCATION POLICY AND QUESTION OF SUSTAINABILITY

A sustainable Development Strategy for Nigeria should be about the Government of Nigeria finding ways to develop social, financial, and conversational resources that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. A Sustainable Development Strategy for a country needs to be developed in such a way that it establishes sustainable development goals and objectives, aim of which should be to put society on a higher pedestal of development for the longest time frame possible. It involves engendering policies and projects that are socially reliable, economically viable, and technically visible. It should also provide the written policies and procedures to achieve them. Sustainable Development is based on responsible decision-making, which considers not only the economic benefits of development, but also the short-term and long-term.

In the light of current realities in the world as regards to how proper and sustainable educational policies are driving development in countries like China, Singapore, and Canada. There is now a need more than ever before for Nigeria to begin to consider proper frameworks that will usher new ways of gaining knowledge and using it. It is no use having graduates of Mass Communications who cannot think outside the box to engage the knowledge they acquired in Communications other than the four walls of media houses. The fact remains constant that all the media houses put together cannot take in all graduates of mass communications. 

Where we have graduates of engineering waiting for either government or some multinational company to engage them is now highly unsustainable. Our curriculum and educational policies must begin to embrace the Third Dimension approach to education. Learners must now be taught to think in addition to reading. Learning through the creative – problem solving medium must be taught to our children from the very beginning.

Sustainable development in education begins from looking at the endpoint of knowledge acquisition as a culture. Why do I want to become an Architect, Medical Doctor or nurse?

Sustainable education—also commonly referred to as Education for Sustainability (EFS) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)—is one of the fastest growing areas of teaching and practice. In developed nations, it now a national culture to examine the extent to which education affects society but in developing nations like Nigeria, replication of knowledge through textbooks is the norm.  A situation where the teacher does the thinking for the learner, does the reading for the learner and in some cases does the learning for the learner. That is in situations whereby a secondary school is left to use textbooks and other materials to answer questions that are set to test his/her level of knowledge so far acquired (exam malpractice).

 How does feeding a child in school affect the learning process, for how long can it be sustained, how does the policy go on to affect the entire society?  are some of the questions we must begin in ask in Nigeria as the national assembly deliberate further on this year's appropriation bill.

I Adanu Moses
Am also trying to make common sense