…About $4bn lost to foreign education since 2015
‘…It’s the easiest way to relocate’
…It’s better to cope with ASUU strikes than wars, racism – Don
Despite the promises by successive governments to improve education funding and allocation to the sector, Nigerian students have continued to troop abroad and in droves in pursuit of foreign education. BENJAMIN SAMSON in this report examines what can be done to stop the trend.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data on payment analysis has shown that Nigerians have spent about $4 billion on foreign education since 2015.
Blueprint Weekend gathered that Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Cyprus, Ukraine, Netherlands, Norway and some Arab countries, are highly patronised by Nigerians.
Experience
Lucky Ojeme, 34, graduated from one of the universities in the eastern part of the country about nine years ago. This computer engineering graduate is heading to Germany in pursuit of his master’s degree.
The IT specialist told this reporter that his decision was informed by the desire to seek a greener pasture. It was when he got the opportunity to travel to Germany for an official assignment and visited some universities that he developed the interest to be part of the system he saw.
“I have been saving for a very long time now because I have planned to leave Nigeria. There is nothing more for anyone in this country. Thank God that I was able to secure admission into a university for my master’s degree,” he said.
Disclosing that he has no intention of coming back to Nigeria, he said, “As soon as I settle down, I will be able to come home and see my family.
“I will be schooling while I also try to secure a little menial job to help me out. Although I have saved a lot to enable me to be comfortable in the country, I need to also work hard as a Nigerian.”
Ojeme is one of millions of Nigerians who are seeking to leave the country in search of foreign education and greener pastures.
Apart from individuals, groups, states and even the federal government sponsor young men and women to acquire better education in different countries across the globe.
Impact on nation’s economy
In a chat with our reporter, an economist, Musa Sakaba, said foreign education has a negative effect on the Nigerian economy.
He said: The huge net dollar outflows have dual adverse effects of under-investment in domestic education and pressure on naira exchange rate, while high demand for dollars to pay foreign educational institutions also affects Nigeria’s external reserves.
“Foreign education spending requires the availability of foreign exchange, something that the country currently is in short supply of. The increased demand for the dollar to pay for foreign services and speculative needs have caused a significant depreciation in the local currency against the U.S. dollar.”
Likewise, Friday Erhaboh, director of media and strategy at Marklenez Limited, an education consultancy firm, believes that the effect of education tourism on the Nigerian economy is a two-sided coin.
“Nigerian students migrating to foreign countries for their undergraduate and postgraduate studies will negatively weaken the country’s currency via exchange rate but ultimately bring about human development to the country as Nigerian citizens are exposed to higher levels of human capital development.
“However, as more Nigerians move to study abroad, it weakens the country’s currency,” he said.
On its effect on Nigerian tertiary education development, Erhaboh said it does not paint a good picture of the country’s education system.
“When a lot of citizens are leaving the education system in their country to study abroad, it suggests that the system has collapsed. Hence it weakens the confidence outsiders have on your education development.
“And that is the major reason Nigerians are mandated to sit for other examinations when applying for a place in foreign institutions, because they do not have confidence in the certificates they obtained here,” he said.
Why they seek education abroad
Many experts and parents indicated that the shabby state of the Nigerian education system is basically fuelling the education tourism pursuits of Nigerians, especially as it concerns tertiary education.
An education psychologist at the College of Education, Zuba, in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr. Beatrice Zunge, told this reporter that many parents send their children abroad because of the standards and conducive learning environment.
She said: “The learning environment is poor in Nigeria. Nigerian institutions lack the capability to compete with top institutions around the world in terms of standard and quality. This is simply because institutions in Nigeria are poorly funded and therefore cannot meet up with the demands of the increasing student population.
“Besides, the lack of conducive and quality learning environments, deplorable state of infrastructures, lack of qualified lecturers, corruption, poor social welfare packages for students, etc; are some of the many problems that have contributed to Nigerian students migrating abroad for tertiary education.
“Most of the people who leave the shores of Nigeria for studies abroad do so simply because they could not get the right environment for studying in their country. The Nigerian education system is not friendly at all.
“In United States Of America, the education system is so flexible and well-structured that one could be a student and at the time be working. Some schools are so structured that a student has five hours for lectures and five hours for his work.
“There are no idle moments there; as a student who is up 18years, you are expected to work and earn a living even while you are in school,” an expert pointed out.”
Parents
A parent, who gave his name simply as Ezenwa, said he chose to send his child to Canada to study because the quality of education in Nigeria is poor.
“Sometime back, our education system ranked among the best in the world, but that is no longer the case.
“I think that in this age, you must educate a child to be competitive, not just within your environment but globally. I don’t think our system currently offers that quality, especially in technical areas. My child is about to go out to study a technology-related course and I don’t think we have what it takes here to give him what he wants,” he said.
Ezenwa noted that it is no longer about the certificate but the quality of education, saying, “If you can make a difference with that education and compete out there, your certificate can not be respected wherever you walk in to apply for a job. And when you get a job you will do it properly. We are trying to give them that competitive edge and not to put them at a disadvantage.”
On the challenge of dollar exchange, he said, “It is a hindrance, but as Nigerians we never say die. If you want to do something you find a way to get it done. So if it is difficult to get the dollars, we are not going to give up because you are looking at what you want to achieve. So, it is a problem but we must find a way to get around it.”
‘Jappa’
However, the chief executive officer of FAB, an education consultancy firm, Felix Adedayo, said, “A lot of people are travelling through schools because that is the easiest way to relocate to those countries. Some of them sell their last property to travel.
“Education loan business is currently booming in the country as some commercial banks give loans to people who do not have enough money in their accounts. They can give you up to N10 million to put in your account for three to six months so that you can apply for a visa. They charge you like seven per cent monthly. When your visa is out you give them back the money and travel. Those who can afford it go for it.
“A lot of people are doing that and it has helped a lot of average families to travel,” he said.
Risks
In his view, a professor of History and International Studies, Kogi State University, Ayingba, Joseph Adaji, advised Nigerians to settle for studying in government-owned universities, rather than face war and racism in their quest for education abroad.
He said: “I advise those who are dying to study abroad to stay at home and get into a federal or state university. It is better to cope with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) incessant strikes than war and racism.
“In February 2022, the Ukraine-Russia war broke out and left about 16,000 African students studying in Ukraine stranded, among whom were at least 1,000 Nigerian students. Many were traumatised for days before they were finally evacuated back home, while some others found their ways to nearby Poland, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia and Europe, generally, despite the racial abuse at the borders and repatriation difficulties for those who headed home to Nigeria. Yet, others opted for online classes, which only provided temporary succour and were unable to fill the void for practicals-oriented courses like medicine and engineering.
“Also, Hundreds of Nigerian students are still stranded in the conflict-hit Sudan where fighting between two warring generals has claimed more than 500 lives.
“Although Nigeria began evacuating the first of around 3,500 of its nationals, mostly students, as a fragile ceasefire allowed foreigners to flee. However, many are still stranded in Sudan.”
The way out
On the way out, Professor Adaji said to make Nigerian universities attractive, the government must invests heavily in infrastructure, teaching, laboratory and library facilities in public tertiary institutions; recruits and pays competitive wages to high-quality staff; and sets minimum standards of foreign universities that can be attended by Nigerians, as an advisory.
Besides, Adedayo urged the government to, especially, fund specialist federal universities for post-graduate studies and those dedicated to producing graduates in fields where the country suffers huge deficits, such as medicine.
He said, “There is a need to audit and classify, which is best fit for undergraduate or graduate training in the public and private universities in terms of quality of staff, infrastructure, facilities and governance systems.
“Also, there should be a selection of institutions to be developed as flagship universities over five, 10 and 20-year (short, medium and long-term) development time frames, with targets and matching funding. The government needs to identify degree programmes in demand and select public universities to be specially equipped to produce graduates for both domestic and foreign job markets.”
He also tasked the government to pay competitive wages to qualified staff to attract sound minds to the university system.
Likewise, public affairs analyst, Chidi Okechukwu, said the government should not even think of stopping our students from travelling abroad for further studies because that will amount to reducing the scope of learning amongst our citizens.
He advised that the authorities in charge should go out there, learn what these advanced countries are doing to promote their education system and come back and develop our system.
“The education managers should work on the education system and make it attractive.
“A major way to get this done is through partnership programmes. Education exchange programmes with some of these advanced countries should be largely incorporated into the Nigerian education system.”
