Nigerian universities not in world’s Top 1000 – PwC report
A PriceWaterCoopers (PwC) report has asserted that no Nigerian university is in the world’s Top 1000.
The report, titled, ‘Nigeria – India: Learnings from Two Large Democracies’, disclosed that 21 Indian universities featured in the list, but no Nigerian institution appeared there.
The report, which highlighted some key learnings from both Nigeria and India, tasked the Nigerian government to strengthen its education system.
The document read, “According to the Overall QS World University rankings, there are 21 Indian universities in the world’s Top 1000, while no Nigerian university makes that rank.
“India also recorded an impressive performance of over 90 percent in primary school enrolment in 2019. India’s strong education system is a result of its heavy reliance on the services sector.”
Comparing Nigeria to India, it stated that Nigeria’s economic growth was primarily dependent on its natural resources, which India lacked. It added that when India’s government realized its long-term reliance on the service sector, it invested in educating its population, thus building a robust education system.
The PwC report urged the Nigerian government to take that route and invest in infrastructure, teaching aids, and funding, and in improving the quality of the teaching environment since its economy was also reliant on services like India’s.
The report also tasked the government to invest in its civil service, which it described as being in a dismal state, and in examinations to select the best hands for the country.
Nigeria’s education system has been in limbo since Monday, February 14, 2022, when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the umbrella body of the teaching staff of Nigerian public universities, announced a ‘warning’ strike in yet another face-off with the Federal government.
So far, ASUU has carried out 16 strikes in 23 years, with the first in 1988 when it protested against the General Ibrahim Babangida regime.
Successive governments have failed to implement the FG/ASUU 2009 Memorandum of Action (MoA), and this has been the major bone of the struggle.
Lecturers explained that if the MOA was implemented, education would be viable for both the lecturers and the students, creating a suitable environment for knowledge sharing.
Joseph OLAOLUWA, jolaoluwa@icirnigeria.org
