Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stated that resolving educational problems will Nigeria in resolving problems of poverty across the country.
“Education reduces economic inequalities. It was found that if workers from poor and rich backgrounds received the same education, the disparity between the two in terms of their inequality in earning is decreased by as much as almost 40%,” he said at the 2019 Nigeria Annual Education Conference.
The Vice President explained that there is a link between education and poverty, urging all Nigerians to help fund education in the country.
“There is a logical link between education and poverty, and of course extreme poverty and mortality is also connected without any doubt at all. It is up to us, not just the government but every one of us must feel mandated by history to do something concrete about the education of our children.”
“In a few decades, we will possibly be the third most populous country in the world. We would also have one of the youngest populations in the world. And we stand a chance of becoming the undisputed most developed African nation on earth.
“Or perhaps one of the most advanced economies in world. We are in that fortunate position because of our natural endowments, the incredible possibilities that technology and innovation offer to redefine our economy for growth, and the real opportunities to leapfrog over generations just on the account of technology in this whole development story.
“But most importantly, the potential of our people, the potential of the Nigerian person, children today and so many, who are coming behind. But we are also confronted by fundamental challenges.
“A large population of out-of-school children, and a huge percentage of that number who are girls, of course we know that the female population is about 50% of our total population; some even say more than 50%. And then, there is a dearth of teachers, complicated by poor quality of teachers.
“In addition, years of neglect of education at both Federal and State levels resulting in very poor infrastructure, very little has been invested compared to the overall picture. The other challenge is that of extreme poverty and its innumerable consequences for health, wellbeing of the majority of Nigerians and resulting vicious cycle of low productivity, poor human development outcomes and increasing poverty.
“The challenges of poverty and poor educational outcomes are directly connected. A UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report which details that connection and provides some important evidence on the impact of education on individual’s earnings and economic growth and among other things that the report found is that:
“Education reduces poverty and that absolute poverty could be reduced by as much as 30% from learning improvements alone. It says also that education increases individual earnings, as it increases earnings by roughly 10% per each additional year of schooling. Indeed, for each $1 invested in an additional year of schooling earnings increase by $5 in low-income countries and $2.5 in lower-middle-income countries.”
