15 Importance of Education to the Development of Nigeria

Here in this post, we are going to take to time analyze and discuss 15 importance of education to the development of Nigeria.

Education is the most important step to take towards achieving development in a country. Its influence in a country would bring about productivity, growth and the utmost development.

Education, as it is popularly acclaimed, is the best legacy a country can offer its citizens especially the youths who are the future change agents of a country’s administration for overall betterment. It should be given a lot of attention as it is a golden ticket to a good life.

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Education is the learning process through which knowledge, skills, beliefs are acquired and put to good use for self-development as well as the development of all the sectors of the economy in a country.

It is also a continuous journey and not a destination as it brings new ideas, innovations, information, facts that would aid a country’s growth, productivity, and development.

Education is like a fruit-bearing tree that is Productive and sustainable for the development of a country’s economy. It increases the creativity and intellectual capacity of the people by feeding information in multiple doses that would enlighten and broaden the minds of the people in other to apply such knowledge in self-development and also in the development of a nation.

Education is the mainstay of a country’s economy and stability either politically or otherwise. It is like a passage to an open place of possibilities.

Education creates an enabling environment for interactions and suggestions on steps to take and decisions to make that will be beneficial to the development of a country. It redefines the views of the people and makes them see things in a better light.

Education is a powerful weapon that can completely transform the well-being of the citizens of a nation. It reduces poverty, eliminates gender inequality, fosters peace, etc.

Education as a major investor in human capital development is the initiator of long-term productivity and growth at both the micro and macro levels.

A stunt in the economic growth and development of a nation is due to the lack of commitment by the leaders of the nation on seeing the positive improvement in the educational sector by proper funding.

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Nigeria as a nation is experiencing economic, political, moral and social problems because of the gross negligence of its leaders to put in more efforts to see that the educational sector is up and running and ensuring that issues of incessant strikes are aborted.

Education provides the needed manpower for national development in the sense that it inculcates in the individual knowledge, skills, character, dexterity and desirable values that will foster the development of a nation as well as self-actualization.

Education is an essential tool which assists in meeting the nation’s social, political, cultural, moral and economic ambition. Without education, a country cannot get the needed manpower for material advancement and enlightenment of the citizens.

The importance of education in a country cannot be overemphasized as it is the backbone of a country’s advancement in technological and entrepreneurial aspects which reforms the economic development of the nation.

15 Importance of Education to Development in Nigeria

The importance of education to development in Nigeria are as follows:

1. Provision of Employment

Education helps to provide employment opportunities for the teeming population that is educated thereby increasing the chances for a better life.

It eliminates idleness as it ensures that youths are engaged in a productive course that adds value to a country’s development as well as improves their well-being.

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2. Economic Growth and Development

Education helps to boost a country’s economic growth by providing efficient, competent and skilled manpower that would impact on a country’s economic development through creativity, productivity, and innovations of new ideas that would overall bring improvement in all the sectors of the economy.

3. Technological Advancement

Education improves the development of a nation through technological advancement in all sectors of the economy which leads to increased production and overall development.

In many developed countries, the application of technology which is as a result of educational intervention in the innovation of ideas that saw to the invention of technology that has impacted greatly on national development.

Education has helped to eliminate the traditional ways of operation by introducing technology that has helped to make the lives of citizens more comfortable and also ensures the country growth and development.

4. Human Development

Education helps in human development by inculcating in individuals those values which make for good citizenship, such as honesty, selflessness, dedication, tolerance, hard work and personal integrity all of which provide the foundation in which good leadership is groomed and development is ascertained.

Education paves the way in which individuals can contribute immensely to the economic development of a country by developing them mentally in areas consideration is required and this can enable them to tackle the problems related to the economy and proffer solutions to solve them.

5. Promotes Social And Group Relationships

Education trains individuals to relate and interact meaningfully with others in society and to appreciate the importance of effective organization for human progress which contributes to the development of a nation.

6. Improved Standard Of Living

A country can be said to be developed when the standard of living of its citizens is at its optimum level. Nigeria hasn’t gotten to that level as the poverty rate is high but with education, the standard of living of the people will improve as jobs would be available with well-paid salaries which would enable

them to satisfy their wants thereby improving their standard of living. Happy citizens indicate a country’s development.

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7. Reduction in Poverty

Education helps to reduce the poverty rate in a country by providing opportunities and resources to the less privileged citizens for an improved standard of living.

8. Promotes Productivity

Education helps to promote productivity by helping individuals discover their creative potential and utilizing it in the performance of specific tasks thereby increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of their personal societal efforts.

9. Improved Agricultural Productivity

Education helps to develop the agricultural sector of the country’s economy by introducing new techniques, machinery that would improve its productivity.

Agriculture sustains over 90 percent of the population and as such it requires total dedication. It also provides employment opportunities for more than 60 percent of the population and for the sector to thrive it needs the presence of education.

Education enlightens farmers on farm techniques and how to use modern machines that would help bring increased productivity thereby contributing greatly to the Gross Domestic Product of the country.

According to Reynolds, the development of the agricultural sector can enhance economic development by increasing the supply of food available, enlarging the size of the domestic market for the manufacturing sector, increasing the supply of domestic savings and by providing the foreign exchange earned through agricultural export and this can only be possible through education.

10. It Attracts External Investors

Education helps to attract foreign investors who see the importance to utilize the potentials of the educated youths in strategic positions in the various sectors of the economy so as to get value for their investment as well enriching the economy of the country for better development.

11. Entrepreneurial Development

Education raises creative and productive young entrepreneurs who serve as employers of labour. They contribute to the economic growth and development of the nation with their groundbreaking business ideas that attract investors from other parts of the world to invest and expand, giving birth to Industrialization in the country.

12. Promotes Security

Education promotes security in the country through technological advancement and intelligence that would help reduce crime to the barest minimum.

Through education, criminal activities in the country would be tackled accordingly.

13. Improvement in the Health Sector

Education helps to improve the health sector of the country by providing skilled medical personnel who ensures the health of the citizens is taken care of.

It also ensures that better health care facilities are used for the well- being of the citizens thereby improving the development of a country.

14. Promotes Political Stability

Education helps to promote political stability in a country.

15. Economy Diversification

Education helps to provide skilled workforce force in all sectors of the economy that contributes their quota to improving the economy and as such eliminating a country’s dependency on a particular sector of her economy and this facilitates development.

Read Also: Functions of Educational Agencies in Nigeria

Conclusion

Education is the brain behind every country’s development and as such it should be taken seriously as its importance brings improvements as well as growth to the economy of a country.

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