Politics of Access and Equal Educational Opportunity in Higher Education: Productivity and Development in Nigeria

Abstract

The expansion of higher education and emphasis on students’ learning outcomes and the advent of new pedagogical approaches to teaching in higher institutions of learning are reflected in the quality of graduates turned out into the world of work. These are supposed to improve productivity and consequently national development. Several types of research have revealed that Nigerian graduates are unemployable and this means low productivity which negates national development. In addition to inadequate educational infrastructures in the higher institutions of learning, insufficient funding, inadequate and incompetent teaching staff among others, it has been established that there is a glaring disconnection between what university graduates are exposed to and what is expected of them in the world of work; the real needs of the society for national development are not put in focus. This paper maintains that implementing quality education which must positively affect productivity and national development must require a realistic assessment of the starting point (objectives of higher education), the current realities of university graduates and a way of measuring the progress made to know the way forward. This paper, therefore, discussed the concepts of policy, access, and equal educational opportunity, higher productivity in relation to socio-economic and political realities, challenges and educational implications, and suggestions on the way forward.