Supreme Special: Educational Tourism

Sometime in 2013, Mr Brian Wilson, programs Director at British Council, revealed at an education exhibition that 18,000 Nigerians were pursuing various undergraduate and post- graduate courses in Britain. There is no doubt that this figure has risen since Mr Wilson made this revelation. Apart from the United Kingdom (UK), so many Nigerians are also studying in virtually every country across the globe; like Canada, Niger republic, Mali, Sudan, Germany, Benin Republic, Cyprus, Ghana, China to mention but a few. According to World Education News + Review (WENR), the Number of Nigerian Students overseas rose from 26,997 to 71,351 (about 164%) between 2005 and 2015; making Nigeria one of the countries with highest number of international students abroad. We account for the 12^th highest international students globally in the US alone. Has anyone asked or wondered why the children of the elites, politicians and many including myself, wished travelling outside of Nigeria to school? Have we thought of the impact of educational tourism on our manpower, economy, education, politics and military and national development?

So, what is educational tourism (Edutour)? Simply put it is a travel, a quest, a crave, a desire for pursuing education overseas. It is another form of tourism to give best education to students and to enhance knowledge. It is also the sale of product or service which main purpose is to disseminate knowledge. Why do Nigerians crave to travel to foreign countries to study? Apart from the show of affluence and wealth by the elites. Negative perception of Nigeria by Nigerian is another reason. This to say Nigerians see their country as a country with a bleak future (especially with respect to education, and the economy), where nothing works, a country where everything is wrong; from leadership down to our political system. Lately, utterances of national condemnation has become a daily norm! You hear – Nigeria is finished/a dead country/ Nigeria is a jungle and so on. In summary, there exist a deep hopelessness on leadership and the entire system of things. Another reason why Nigerians send their children abroad is because of the poor quality of Nigerian Universities. A university education is the third, highest and optional type of education where graduates are trained (in skills, learning and research) and degrees awarded. Universities are called Ivory towers because they are the drivers of knowledge and development! The real products of the Ivory Tower were evident in the first and second republic. However, that’s history now; for they now lack infrastructures, fraught with incessant strikes that makes them beg for survival! Nigerian Universities are not adequately funded going by UNESCO mandate that minimum of 26% of national budget should be allocated to education but this has never been achieved as only approximately 8% has been earmarked for education in the past five years. Even the little allocation to education is grossly mismanaged.

Nigeria has over 130 universities offering less than 300,000 slots for admission placements every session, with over 1million people jostling to get placements into  the universities every academic session.  So, what happens? Wealthy parents amongst over 700,000 people who are denied or not qualified for placements are forced to seek admission abroad. The demand for education in Nigeria is more than the supply. This is according to Brian Wilson.

A sharp and continuous decline in the standard of education is another reason for the mass Exodus of Nigerians oversees for studies. By decline we mean incessant strike actions by university staff, poor lecturer to student ratio, an ideal lecturer to student ratio is 1-30  but in Nigeria the ratio is 1- to an average of 70 students. infrastructural deficit and decay like over populated lecture halls, inadequate public address systems, lack of regular power supply, over populated hostels with extremely poor sanitary conditions, obsolete and analog library system, ill equipped laboratories, non-functional electrical appliances, broken louvres, chairs, bunks, insecurity of lives and properties on campuses etc.

These reasons are cogent but the trend is worrisome. On our next edition we will discuss the impact of educational tourism on our economy.

Mrs. Krystal IBHADE Tamunosiki

krystaltaminosiki@gmail.com