The educational system in Kogi State stands on the brink of total collapse — a grim reflection of the broader national neglect that has long plagued Nigeria’s learning institutions. For years, governments at both federal and state levels have failed to fulfill their constitutional duties to nurture and sustain the nation’s most vital sector — education.
Across Kogi’s towns and villages, the story is the same: broken classrooms, weary teachers, and frustrated students. Poor funding has crippled primary education, leaving a generation of children without access to quality learning. Crumbling infrastructure, outdated materials, and a shortage of qualified teachers have reduced many schools to shadows of what they should be.
Most recently, the staggering increase — over 100% — in tuition fees across Kogi’s state-owned tertiary institutions has deepened the crisis. This unjustifiable hike threatens to shut the doors of opportunity against students from low-income families who already struggle to afford basic necessities. Education, a fundamental right and the bridge to a better tomorrow, is fast becoming a privilege for the few.
Such policy missteps betray the essence of governance. To deny the youth affordable education is to rob the state of its future. The government must, therefore, urgently review the new tuition policy and align it with the harsh economic realities facing ordinary Kogites.
The deterioration of education in Nigeria — and particularly in Kogi State — stems largely from chronic underfunding, poor teacher motivation, and systemic corruption. Classrooms lack furniture, libraries are empty, laboratories nonfunctional, and the few dedicated teachers are demoralized by years of unpaid or irregular salaries, poor working conditions, and promotion stagnation.
For nearly a decade, primary schools across Kogi’s 21 Local Government Areas have suffered severe teacher shortages. Those who remain continue to endure percentage salary payments and neglect — a moral and administrative failure that has crippled the human capital base of the state.
Kogi’s education system demands not mere rhetoric, but radical reform — reforms rooted in accountability, innovation, and genuine investment. The government must see education not as an expense but as the foundation upon which every other sector rests.
Saving Kogi’s educational system is not just a moral duty; it is an economic imperative. For a state blessed with intelligence, resilience, and youthful energy, silence is no longer an option. The time to act is now — before ignorance becomes the official language of our children’s tomorrow.
– Dr. Onaji Sunday Frank
Former Governorship Candidate, Action Peoples Party (APP), Kogi State.
