Academic Skills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Academic Skills - Essay Example twentieth century, when the world was moving towards immense development at a global level, Nigeria was experiencing high unemployment, weak economy, abandoned and ruined educational system, high poverty, increased corruption and other malpractices in the private and public sectors, increased rates of crime, international criticism and imposed sanctions, and a bad management system. Okonkwo (p.58), along with other leaders, sociologists, and researchers advocated a strong need for a revamped and innovated educational system. Although the need for good education was recognized at the beginning of this century, or even earlier dating back to the colonial period (Ajayi, 420), researches conducted in recent times have also identified these or very similar needs. For example, Odia and Omofonmwan (p.81) have identified specific problems related to the educational system such as decline in standard, deterioration of facilities, examination malpractices, mass promotion syndrome and others. Ajibade stated, ‘Many Nigerian elites, going by the quality of their contributions to debates, are suffering from acute â€Å"intellectual malnutrition.† It is now pretty difficult to fight ignorance in Nigeria, a country which the World Bank report for 1991 says is the 13th poorest nation in the world. The per capita income of an average Nigerian hardly permits him the luxury of getting information materials. Not many Nigerians can afford the exorbitant prices of books.’ (qtd. in Ihonvbere, 73). This indicates two factors affecting the Nigerian education, firstly the standard of education and secondly, socioeconomics of the nation. In fact, academic crises and strength of sociopolitical conditions are interdependent. On similar terms, Odia and Omofonmwan (p.82) pointed out that education in the contemporary times has become the privilege of the affordable masses, and a business with great earning potential for the educationalists. Their research discovered that most of the