Charles Ogwo
When Nigerians learnt through Mr. Brian Wilson, Programmes Director at British Council, that about 18,000 Nigerians were pursuing various undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Britain, many expressed concerns. But down the years, this figure has risen.
Alhaji Lamido Sanusi, the former Emir of Kano, in a similar version in 2019 at a public lecture stated that although there are no comprehensive data on the number of Nigerian students abroad, reports shown that there are about 71,000 Nigerian students in Ghana paying about US$1billion annually as tuition fees and their upkeeps, as against the annual budget of US$751million for all Nigerian federal universities.
The speed at which Nigerian students migrate abroad in pursuit of foreign education has continually being on the exponential rise. Each year, there is a significant rise in the numbers of students moving abroad for education despite the huge costs of financing such moves. Students who leave Nigeria to study abroad are usually there for either their undergraduate or post graduate programmes.
UNESCO in one of its researches has identified some countries as the choices of most Nigerians. These are United Kingdom, Ghana, USA, Malaysia, Canada, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Hungary, and Russian Federation.
United Kingdom is the number one destination for Nigerian students to study abroad. In 2016, there were 17,973 Nigerians studying in UK universities. Mr. Iain Steward, member of the British Parliament, said that about 30,000 Nigerian students would be studying in UK Universities by 2020. This number accounts for 7 per cent of the total UK University population.
Ghana is another major country where Nigerian students go to for foreign education. According to UNESCO report about 13,919 Nigerian students were studying in Ghana as at 2016, a whopping 50 per cent rise from figures as at 2012. Currently about 75, 000 Nigeria students are studying in Ghana and thousands of others are clamouring for opportunities to study in that country.
United States of America, with its very good schools offering quality education and tons of extra-curricular activities, is a toast among Nigerian students. The US Embassy in Nigeria noted that 7,318 Nigerian students were studying in more than 700 universities and colleges in the US, at undergraduate and graduate levels. And by November 2017, the International Educational Exchange data released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) shows that there are 11, 710 Nigerian students currently pursuing.
In Malaysia, there are lots of Nigerian pursuing undergraduate and post graduate studies. With the goal of the Malaysian government of becoming the world’s sixth largest education exporter by 2020, its education sector is rapidly developing, making it a popular study choice for international students. Reports have it that there are about 13000 Nigerian students in Malaysian universities.
Canadian universities and colleges, recognized for high standard for education, variety of program and friendliness to international students, have about 3,257 Nigerian students studying there in 2016, according to UNESCO data.
South Africa is another study destination for Nigerian students. With a reported population of not less than 2,000 Nigerians studying in South Africa, about one billion dollars is being paid annually by Nigerians as school fees.
Saudi Arabia hosts many Nigerian students offering different courses at different levels. There were 1,915 Nigerian students reported studying in Saudi Arabia by 2016.
United Arab Emirates has more than 1,755 Nigerian students studying over there while Hungary, which according to UNESCO survey is gradually becoming a destination country for foreign education, has over 700 Nigerian students are studying there. More than half of that number is undertaking courses in the Medical fields.
In Russian Federation, Nigerians students are part of the increasing foreign students population in the Eastern European countries of Russia and Ukraine. Currently, more than 3300 Nigerian students are studying in Ukraine. UNESCO placed the figure at 777 Nigerian students studying in Russia as at 2016, obviously the numbers has increased.
And like a leaking roof, the adverse effects of foreign education tourism are gradually eating deep into the Nigerian economy and the purses of its citizenries in the last couple of years. Education tourism is the pursuit of knowledge, in one form or another, by a national in another country. It involves the collection of knowledge, both varied and specialized.
A quick arithmetic of the school fees spent by Nigerians abroad reveals the diverse effects of the cash outflows out of the Nigerian economy. If a Nigerian student spends about £30,000 studying in Britain, that makes it about N9 million. Then 18,000 students spend about N162 billion for their studies in that country. But sadly, this figure does not include money spent on training countless Nigerian children enrolled in secondary schools in the Britain.
Most of the Nigerian students studying abroad according to DreamApply.com have their study areas majorly in Engineering, Management, Public Administration, Economics, Computer Science, International Relations, Business, Agriculture, Environment and Medicine.
In 2018, its survey revealed that while the study subjects which Nigerian students apply are diverse, Engineering was tops, with almost a third of the students doing the related courses. Alternatively, Management and Public Administration are also popular.
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. 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, 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 student 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. 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 school,” an expert pointed out.
Also, most institutions abroad employ better teaching methods and contemporary teaching facilities to help the student’s learning process. Each student’s peculiarity and needs are taken into consideration in fixing and organizing lectures while students are always exposed to practical works, allowed to work while studying, very much unlike in Nigeria.
For Mr. Friday Erhaboh, a parent, the effects of education tourism on the Nigerian economy is a two-side 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 brings about human development to the country as Nigerian citizens are exposed to higher level of human capital development.
“As more Nigerians move to study abroad, it weakens the country’s currency,”, he said.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data for 2015 witnessed an increase in the labour force as well as an increase in the number of unemployed people in Nigeria. The statistic puts the number of the labour force at 76.96 million while the number of unemployed people stood at 22.45 million. This posts a bad and scary precedence for students in Nigeria and the country as a whole. This is another reason why Nigerian students who have the means to study abroad gladly take the opportunity rather than study in Nigeria where the chances of securing good jobs after graduation is relatively low.
“As many Nigerians study abroad, there is the tendency that they will get jobs after school which gives rise to repatriated funds to the country”, Iraboh said.
Many of these Nigerians repatriate parts of their earnings abroad to country, which in turn boost the Nigerian economy. Figures by Price -Waterhouse Cooper (PwC), reveals that in 2018, a total of $25.08 billion was remitted by Nigerians in diaspora into the country. This represents about 14 per cent increase from 2017 and 83 per cent of the Federal Government’s 2018 budget in value. And these funds are increasing on a yearly basis.
On its effect on Nigerian tertiary education development, Erhaboh opined that 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 another examinations when applying for a place in foreign institutions, because they do not have confidence on the certificates they obtained here”, he logically ascerted.
Like it is said, ‘it all begins in the heart’, looking at the way forward, some Nigerians believe the first approach to arresting this ugly trend is to have a paradigm shift towards our educational system. We should begin to think outside the box to finding solutions to this biting problem.
An expert believes that we should not even think of stopping our students from traveling abroad for further studies because that will amount to reducing the scope of learning amongst our citizens.
Rather she counseled 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”, she suggested.
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.
Some Nigerian private universities are already imbibing this principle.
