CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Access to education is one of the important basic human rights in all societies. In Nigeria, the provision of education has been one of the most critical issues of government social policy especially since aer independence in 1960. Poverty has however remained a stumbling block for most people to attain this basic right. Poverty is a universal social problem that cuts across nations, race, locations, culture and religion. It has been in existence from the time of the establishment of the human race on planet earth. Poverty stricken members of the human race have always struggled in a number of ways to attain decent living standards. Poverty presents a number of challenges to its victims such as access to proper health facilities, education, nutrition, employment and the realization of personal aspirations. Of particular concern to this study are challenges that poverty stricken students face in their quest for education. The plight of poverty stricken students in exasperated by stringent school policies that pertain the payment of fees, attitudes by teachers and fellow students, shortage of food, school wear and stationery. An unsupportive home environment further complicates the poverty stricken students’ drive to acquire decent education.

The current economic crisis where the prices of basic goods are very high adds more suffering to the already poverty stricken students. In Nigeria, widespread and severe poverty is a reality. It is a reality that depicts a lack of food, clothes, education and other basic amenities. Severely poor people lack the most basic necessities of life to a degree that it can be wondered how they manage to survive. There are several eects and deficiencies associated with poverty in Nigeria. One of the main eects of poverty is poor health, as is reflected in Nigeria’s high infant mortality and low life expectancy. Poor people in Nigeria face several health issues as they lack basic health amenities and competent medical practitioners. Most children do not have the opportunity of being immunized and this leads to certain physical defects in some of the children. Their health has become low priority and as they have little or no choices, they live with whatever they are provided with, whether healthy or not. No qualms, education is an absolute human right that should be given to all human beings. In every nation, education should be accessible for every single citizen regardless of their status or social classes. And it is the core responsibility of governments to ensure this access.

Education is linked and related to nation development. According to EFC (2002), “education is a key index of development. It has been documented that schooling improves productivity, health and reduces negative features of life such as child labor as well as bringing about empowerment” (Otive, 2006, p.1). In Nigeria, the accessibility of education is at stake. We get to see more and more people getting access to poverty rather than education. The Nigerian government has launched various Poverty Alleviation Programs starting from 80s and every new government seems to have their own Poverty Eradication or Alleviation Programs. Eventually, all these programs become an avenue for corruption and paving ways for embezzlement. For education to take place in Nigeria, poverty must be seriously addressed. Education has the capability of reducing poverty because once the majority of the people in the country are educated, they are likely to get jobs, earn living and the ability to provide the basic needs for their families. This is the strength and uniqueness of education in producing an excellent Human Capital for nation development and economy. According to Aho, Lariviére and Martin (1998) ³7he concept of poverty has evolved in the history of economic thoughts, witnessing different stages of transition since the 18th century´. The second transition in the evolution of the concept of poverty began at the end of the colonial period with new awareness of the problem of poverty as it afflicts developing countries. The post-colonial period has been characterized by a deliberate transfer from the North to the South of the anti- poverty polices development in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Poverty has been traditionally understood to mean a lack of access to resources, productive assets and income resulting in a state of material deprivation (Baulch, 1996). The Nigerian government has failed to realize perhaps realized but ignored the power of education on country development and providing an excellent human capital for the society. It is high time that the Nigerian government took on board” the importance of education since it has been accepted worldwide that education plays a huge role in a country’s development and economy. The Nigerian government should rid their bodies of the virus of corruption and download the latest soware of development and anti-poverty programs to combat the poverty to allow every citizen to have access to education. The Nigerian government has failed to provide a good infrastructure, there is a lack of teaching and learning material while you could see some lecturers at the universities continue using their 10 year-old teaching materials while 10-20 year-old equipment/instruments still survive in our labs.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Many Economists would argue that igniting economic growth and sustaining it is the surest and most sustainable way to fight poverty. Cross-country studies on economic growth and poverty reduction indicate that a 1% increase in growth has been associated on average with a 1.5% reduction in poverty (Hasan, Mitra and Ulubasoglu, 2007). The Asian Development Bank (ADB) (2004) report stated that there is a great deal of variation in how much economic growth has reduced poverty across countries and even within countries over different periods of time. In statistical terms, the report noted that variation in economic growth can explain only around 45% of the variation in poverty reduction It is very bad to see a country called the “giant of Africa” become an “ant of Africa”. Besides, it is also very painful to see a country as blessed as Nigeria is with load of dierent natural resources and abundant human capital, still living in abject povery, 70 percent her citizen lives below the poverty line and surviving on less than $1 a day.

Poverty has ripped the process of education apart and deprived people from getting proper access to education. Poverty has become the ‘boss’ with the help of corruption determining who should go to school and who should not. Poverty determines children’s faith. Huge numbers of boys are dropping out of school, loaded with evil intention and sophisticated weapons–declaring a war of robbery while girls fail to complete their studies and end up with early pregnancy. Some of them are so victimized by poverty that they have to sell their bodies on campus as a mean of survival. The impact of poverty on education is of great significance and it is tormenting to see students struggling and battling the hardship to study without any support from the government or their parents. It is depressing to see our graduates unemployed aer all the hardships of studies and poverty. This has led to the development greater population of poor people in the country. The Nigerian government has turned a deaf ear to the people’s agony and blinded their eyes to the flood of poverty eroding our integrity and existence. Some programs were launched which were supposed to alleviate poverty in the country but the eorts were in vain due to self-interest and corruption.