Education, Social Mobility and Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: A Sociological Perspective
Keywords:
social mobility, poverty reduction, poverty alleviation, functionalist, EducationAbstract
This sudy contributes to the arguments by scholars in the social sciences over
the relationship existing among education, social mobility and poverty
reduction using Nigeria as a case study. The argument has been championed
by those in the functionalist camp who have established that education
guarantees higher social mobility and poverty reduction. In fact, it is argued
that it is true that higher educational attainment or qualifications are a
strong predicator for higher social mobility and living above the poverty
line in an open society, but this link cannot be adequately established in the
Nigerian context because of high rate of unemployment. Increased
unemployment has ensured that many graduates, even up to doctorates, roam
the streets of Nigeria unemployed. We have also argued that this high
unemployment rate perpetuates poverty among significant number of
Nigerians and in turn, poverty ensures that a lot of people remain untaught
(without formal education). An appraisal of some poverty alleviation
programmes reveal that these programmes have failed to minimise poverty
because of certain structural and policy problems such as inadequate funding,
corruption, inadequate coordination, political instability, infrastructural
inadequacies and lack of proper focus, among others. The study recommends,
among other things, that tackling the problems of unemployment in an effective
manner will inevitably reduce poverty and help Nigerians attain the quality
education that can develop our nation, and that adequate funding should be
provided to our educational institutions so as to guarantee their accessibility
by all Nigerians.
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