December 19, 2022
The median age in Nigeria is 18.1 years, meaning there is a lot of undiscovered, potentially high-impact talent. In addition, Nigeria has a matriculation examination by The Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) - a Nigerian entrance examination board for tertiary-level institutions. A better understanding of how students who participate in these exams and local competitions (i.e. Cowbell Milk Competition) translate into academic potential could help top high school programs conduct better outreach initiatives in Nigeria. We’re also looking to investigate new methods and metrics for evaluating talent in developing nations like Nigeria, where traditional standards discriminate against lower-income pupils. Nigeria’s English literacy rate is highly variable, with a lot of variance dependent on location in urban areas. However, the national english literacy rate is approximately 75% - the highest in Africa.
The Federal Ministry of Education oversees all education in Nigeria. Presumably, they can be contacted through the information available on the official websites. However, email as a method of outreach generally has low response rates. Using the numbers provided and contacting through WhatsApp is generally quite promising. Better Trajectories had a representative attempt to set up an appointment with the Ministry of Education in Lagos, physically being present at the office and was unsuccessful.
Secondary school is 6 years and is split into Junior Secondary School of 3 years, which is the nearby equivalent of middle school or junior high school in the United States and Canada, and Senior Secondary School of 3 years, which is equivalent to Grades 10-12 when students are typically between the ages of 16-18.
Most students attending secondary school in Nigeria have completed the required admission exams for entry to Federal Government schools which are the prime standard. Those who are unsuccessful or have some level of unconventionality in their high school experience will likely attend State-Owned secondary schools.
Generally, the brightest students attend private schools. In connecting with the Math Olympiad community in Nigeria, we see this shown. It is important to note that private schools are the norm, and problems like absenteeism and poor educational quality can be avoided in a pay-to-learn ecosystem. In Nigeria, the marginal returns of not only sending your child to school but paying a higher sticker price have outsized effects.
“There are secondary schools that pay tuition upwards of six million Naira ($17,000) per annum just as there are those who pay less than one hundred thousand Naira (#300) per annum and all the shades in-between. It depends on what you want, really. There are over one hundred Federal Government subsidized Colleges all over the country - at least two in every state - but these are open ONLY to Nigerian children, and admissions are very competitive schools. They are fee-paying, but their fees are very reasonable (about $1000 per annum) compared to the level of provisions they have and as compared to other public schools. And they are usually boarding schools.” - a quote from Quora.
In the Western World, attendance at top universities is a medium-low variance way to climb the socio-economic ladder. Although the GDP of Nigeria and African countries fall much lower relative to Western countries, the differences in poverty drastically impact an individual’s ability to accrue savings - the phenomenon popularly modelled in Poor Economics.
However, Nigeria’s higher education system has glaring flaws and does not have the infrastructure to identify and support the extraordinary.
Nigeria's higher education system has undergone significant changes and challenges. The country has a diverse higher education system, with universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education offering a range of degree programs.
The history of higher education in Nigeria dates back to the early 20th century, when the first university, the University of Ibadan, was established in 1948: much later than the top institutions in the US - with Harvard being established in 1638. It is important to note that in the US and UK, there is a strong correlation between the age of an institution and its prestige alongside its research output, alumni outcomes, etc.
Regardless, especially strong institutions by various metrics, namely outcomes, are not necessarily the oldest, but in Nigeria one could look to the University of Ibadan as the most prestigious, but success by the aforementioned metrics doesn’t compare.
Regardless, since 1948, the number of universities in the country has steadily increased, with around 200 federal, state, and private universities currently operating in Nigeria. The rapid increase is a product of more demand, but the quality of institutions is not being taken into account as necessary.
“The National Universities Commission (NUC) has indicated that it intends to increase university capacity by supporting the creation of new private universities. But indications show that the Commission has not focused on scholarly output and the quality of teaching.”
However, despite the growth in the number of institutions, the quality of higher education in Nigeria has faced numerous challenges. These challenges include inadequate funding, limited access for disadvantaged groups, and a lack of emphasis on research and innovation. Nigeria’s higher education sees corruption at all levels; challenges with the Nigerian Labour Congress have caused long-winded strikes meaning paying students aren’t even attending their respective institutions, and bribery is rampant from faculty paying to be given their respective positions - raising questions about the ability of educators to effectively teach and conduct research and faculty-student bribery, manipulation and exploitation.
With the newness of many institutions, the prestige of the top institutions can still be tied to their age, but generally, talent is sorted all across the country at schools of varying competitiveness as competition to get into top schools is not especially rigorous. A lack of research and infrastructure means that none of the institutions in the country can necessarily consider them word-class both locally and globally.
In looking towards interventions, it makes sense to encourage the displacement of students to other countries for their post-secondary education or look at alternative models of education, ideally ones that can fill gaps within industries that are human capital constrained: to support the productivity of tail-end talent and support socio-economic improvement for the majority of the youth population.
Programs like Malengo, funding scholarships for Ugandans to attend school in Germany, seem especially effective for the former. However, attending the most prestigious institutions, namely in the US or UK, is seemingly ideal; this is reserved for the select few who can “survive” the various bottlenecks towards attending a subset of universities that are willing to provide financial aid in the first place and be empathetic to those whose resumes and portfolios won’t necessarily match up with domestic applicants.
More radical programming like Kibo School seem to be a strong option for those looking to fill gaps in the global human capital market, particularly in the tech industry. Although this seems incredibly promising: addressing broader spanning problems - discipline wise will likely involve institutions that can support student development in more fields outside the programming industry.
Scouting for individuals - the undiscovered future breakouts is no easy task in an LMIC. There are less reliable markers and institutions to rely upon. However, the Math Olympiad community has been a good case study for a group of individuals who are very intellectually competent. As such, supporting the development of Math and other competitions with a global reach in LMICs may have outsized benefits. Doing well in Olympiads provides credibility to students who may be applying for opportunities abroad and increase the potency of pre-existing network effects through the Olympiad infrastructure.
However, there are still faults, as although you can rest assured that the majority of students who exist within these communities are bright, there are still outliers whose talents and even accomplishments are less legible and visible. Modelling after Emergent Ventures, microgrants were a suitable next step. Better Trajectories distributed microgrants to students who wanted to pursue their own projects; however, a decent majority went to students in the Nigerian Math Olympiad community and wanted to put forth funds they couldn’t retrieve otherwise towards college application fees and related expenses. The general theory of change is that if funding is the sole or, at the least, the largest constraint to studying abroad, reducing that strain is quite beneficial.
Generally, the landscape is both empty and fertile, and there seems to be much opportunity for (careful) experimentation. Learning more about the current context seems valuable and successful pilots would likey be boosted overall interest, which is presently quite low, at least for the secondary school-age demographic.
I’m thinking more about this through Better Trajectories. (site has not been updated)
Further Readings