Let’s Check The Widening Education Gap

The education gap between the rich and the poor keeps widening and has become a cause for concern because of the unsavory social implications in the near future.

More universities are springing up, as individuals, churches, states and even the federal authorities establish theirs but very few of them think about the indigent who may want to acquire university education but lack the means to do so.

Universities owned by states now charge as much as those owned by individuals and churches, while the few owned by the federal government can admit but very few candidates, yet hundreds of thousands of prospective students are struggling to gain admission into the tertiary institutions.

The indication by the federal government that it might stop funding universities is to say the least shocking, and the result may as well destroy the little peace being enjoyed by Nigerians if brilliant young men and women are let loose to unleash violence on a society that has denied them the basics of life and now education.

Agreed, funding university education is expensive, but so is our democracy. But should we sacrifice the development of our human resources to our expensive democracy?

We believe we shouldn’t, but with the way our policy makers are going about it, we may be breeding youths that may in the future unleash their frustration on the entire society.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim had indicated at the launch/dinner of the University of Jos annual fund to generate money from alumni and friends for the development of the institution, that the federal government might stop funding universities in Nigeria. We think it is not the best way to go.

In this jet age, when countries of the world are encouraging citizens to be educated to enable them contribute meaningfully to the development of those countries, we are finding ways to discourage aspiring young people from getting education.

We should have a rethink as education, at this time of our nation’s growth, has become a thing we cannot ignore.

If the children of the affluent can get education and aspire to higher things, what sins have the children of the middle class or even the poor, in some cases, committed to make the state deny them education?

If brilliant students are denied the means to acquire education, they might channel their energies into something unpalatable for the few educated ones.

It is unthinkable that the state, which ought to take care of the citizens is now throwing them, so to say, to the wolves. If today’s policy makers decide that education is not important enough to be a priority, then we are playing with fire.

A country made up of uneducated people will never progress. The voice of a few educated ones can never be heard because the majority of uneducated ones would crowd them out.

We must begin to find a way of bridging the education gap between the rich and poor so that we would not create a monster, which we cannot handle. Brilliant but indigent Nigerians would not forgive us if we continue to deny them what the citizens of other countries take for granted.

The average Nigerian citizen may, in the foreseeable future, not be able to send his children to the university and this portends a serious problem for the country. After all, most of the policy makers today never paid to go to school.

Can we afford to stop funding university education? Can we afford to allow the youths to become artisans and layabouts? Can we afford to become a country of half-educated people? Should we allow this country to go to the dogs because of the cost of governance and the greed of a few?

We think not! We believe in equal opportunity and the goodness of man. We believe that the few universities, to which the poor and indigent could still apply and get a university education, should be funded by the society.

We cannot afford to become irresponsible, especially when it comes to educating the brilliant.

Agreed, not everybody can have a university education, which is why vocational education is available, but to deny a brilliant but indigent young person from aspiring to be somebody in life is to deny all that is good for a promising country.