Education and Development in a Globalized Environment: The Case of Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The truism that education is the surest route to development in any society needs no contention. However, despite this fact, several societies in the modern world are still far from providing this basic necessity to the greater proportion of their people. This situation is
considered unacceptable more so, if one considers that education has been classified as a major fundamental human rights in contemporary society. Again, in the present globalized society in which every nation is connected to the other, education is perhaps the only instrument for people to adequately cope with the new trend. In most contemporary
nation-states including Nigeria, the level of educational attainment vary across regions. Such discrepancy also exist within regions and sub-regions .In Nigeria, concerns have been expressed on the glaring gap between the North and the South with regards to education. The classification of many states in the North as “Educationally- Disadvantaged-States” has not remedied the situation. This paper focuses on this important issue of the state of education in the Nigerian Northern region especially within the context of globalization. The paper suggests ways in which education can be used as a potent instrument of socio-economic, political and technological development of the region.

Keywords: Culture; Development; Education; Globalization; Inequalities; Science and Technology.

African Research Review Vol. 2 (3) 2008: pp. 130-145