By Pastor Prof Durodola O.A
In my country — Nigeria — the only schools that seem to be regulated are those that are officially approved. Yet, ironically, almost anyone can open a school anywhere without proper government oversight. The result? A proliferation of institutions that lack structure, standards, and sincerity.
This is a nation where parents dictate the class their children should belong to, as long as they can afford the fees — regardless of the child’s academic readiness or age. Promotion is for sale, not earned.
In Nigeria, schools are often owned and operated by individuals with no professional background in education. If you have the capital, you can run a school — whether or not you understand curriculum, pedagogy, or child development.
We live in a system where students graduate with results they can not defend, and certificates have become more decorative than demonstrative of real knowledge. Academic performance on paper has been dangerously divorced from actual competence.
Sadly, in our teacher training institutions, education has become a dumping ground — reserved for candidates who couldn’t gain admission into more “prestigious” courses. It is where passion for teaching is rare, and the pursuit of excellence is often discouraged by systemic neglect.
Worse still, our teachers are underpaid, undervalued, and overworked. Many are emotionally exhausted and financially broken, driving some of the best minds away from the noble profession of shaping lives.
Our national budget is a reflection of our values. And from what we see, education is not a priority. Entertainment allowances, furniture budgets, and political perks outweigh what is allocated to education — the very foundation of any prosperous nation.
Ironically, the same leaders who formulate education policies in Nigeria can not trust their own system enough to enrol their children in it. They fly them abroad, to enjoy the very quality of education they deny the children of the poor.
In my country, we love to promote what is not practical or achievable. We set grand goals and pen lofty policies — but lack the political will and sincerity to implement them.
Yet, I dare to believe — I strongly believe — that an educational revolution is imminent in Nigeria. A peaceful but powerful uprising led by visionaries, patriots, and professionals who understand that the true strength of any nation lies not in its oil wells or gold mines — but in the strength of its educational system.
The radicals who manipulate the system will soon be unseated, and in their place will arise a new generation of reformers — educators, parents, and policy-makers committed to restoring dignity, discipline, and development in Nigerian education.
Because when education fails, the nation falls.
Pastor Prof Durodola O.A is the Head of Dobar Schools in Lagos
