A Brief Perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals

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WRITTEN BY: Asanya Boluwatife Ndidi The unanimous agreement of the 193 member states of the United Nations General Assembly to the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in 2015 produced one of the most ambitious and inclusive global aspirations in history. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. Targeted at committing members states to ensure greater inclusivity, end poverty and push the world to a more sustainable path. The SDGs are broad and interdependent thus begetting the question as to how well these broad global aspirations are likely to result in implementable developments especially in developing countries. The inclusion of so many goals without a hierarchy of priority and without reference to inherent contradictions that are likely to result in conflict between the goals may have unintended negative consequences which may inhibit the timely/e
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Educational Reforms

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 WRITTEN BY: Asanya Boluwatife Ndidi

Education is the passport to the future of every nation (Nelson Mandela) and no nation can grow above its educational system. The pivotal role education plays as bedrock for national development cannot be overemphasized. However,education as a major catalyst for emancipation and evolution of countries has not taken a centre stage in Nigeria despite notable improvements in the sector.

According to UNICEF, one in every 5 out of the world's school children is in Nigeria. Despite the fact that primary education is compulsory and free, about 10.5 million of the country's children are not in school and in the Northern part of the country, the picture is even bleaker with a net attendance rate of 53% and significant marginalization in the area of female education.

Factors that can be attributed to the educational deprivation include poor financing of the educational sector which results in poor infrastructure leading to unconducive learning environments and conditions, poor qualifications, training and welfare of teachers,inadequate supervision of schools, lack of teaching and learning materials, poor policy implementation, outdated curriculums, insurgency especially in the Northern part which has left at least 1000 schools closed and over 1800 classrooms destroyed and lastly, imbalances in educational attainment for girls as a result of socio-cultural norms.

 The failures in the sector has increased the incidence of poverty, and deprivation of vulnerable groups and hindered the technological,political and socio-economic growth of the country. There is an urgent need for all relevant stakeholders; the government at all levels, the public and private sector, local and national interest groups to rise up to the challenges in the system and change the course of events, if sustainable development is to be achieved in the nation.

The following are recommendations addressing some of the barriers hindering implementation of effective education strategies in the country:

Adequate funding of the educational sector- According to UNESCO, 26% of a country's budgetary allocation should go into education, but since 1991, it has never surpassed 10% in Nigeria. The significant gap in funding has led to inability of the government to meet increasing educational needs of its citizens. Majority of the school building are dilapidated with overstretched and overcrowded classrooms, poor libraries, no/poorly equipped ICT centers, laboratories and terrible hostel conditions. It is important to increase the budgetary allocation in the sector so that new facilitates can be built across the country and existing ones improved to meet global standards.

The government should explore Public Private partnership as a viable alternative to financing the sector and improving access and quality in education. Furthermore, there should be increased funding of educational researches and provision of modern learning and teaching materials as well as internet facilities required for effective learning especially in this age of technology.

In addition to increasing the budgetary allocations, appropriate strategies should be put in place for tracking resources to ensure they are effectively utilized.

Improvement of teachers quality- This can be done through employment of professional and qualified teachers, and the conduct of periodic screenings to ascertain the quality of education being impacted in the students.This exercise will also encourage them to improve on their skills and academic qualifications in order to meet current global teaching standards.

Teacher training and re-training exercises should be organized regularly to acquaint them with the use of ICT and 21st century student-centered teaching methodologies to deliver appropriate quality education.

In addition, there should be improved welfare system for teachers. A motivating teaching environment should be provided for them through payment of sufficient and timely salaries with regular salary reviews and a system that rewards/punish hardworking and lazy teachers.

Review of educational curriculum- The current Nigerian educational curriculum is outdated and theoretical, as emphasis is placed on abstract understanding without regards to students ability to apply these theories to real life problems. Paper qualification is given more credence than individual skills and abilities. In the light of global advancement such knowledge becomes irrelevant.There is a need for a curriculum that aligns itself with global best practices and at the same time is flexible and adaptable to the needs of the locals and can also accommodate future developments. Subjects that teach innovations and creativity ,topics bordering on entrepreneurial and computer skills should be introduced into the curriculums.

Integration of technology into the education system- The pandemic had unmasked substantial inequalities in the educational sector. One major issue that may stem for this is that children who are cannot keep up with their peers because of inaccessibility to digital tools may never catch up and will continue to feel the effect of this goal even after the pandemic. Remote learning strategies are being put in place in various countries to reduce this gap. However, Nigerian has not been able to transition to this new method of learning due to lack of internet access, electricity and knowledge gap on the use of technology. It is important for us to restructure our education system to include technology so that students will be able to compete with their peers globally. Educators need to be up-skilled on the use of technology and students equipped with necessary infrastructure that will facilitate the learning process.

Inspection of schools- To ensure compliance with set out standard of education, it us imperative that there are periodic inspection of schools to ascertain attendance of teachers, monitor adherence to syllabus,and verify the conditions of the school environments.

Educational conferences should be held regularly across the country to deliberate on ideas that will advance the sector.

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