Some Challenges Militating against Developing Countries Achieving SDG 4 on Targets: Nigeria as Case Study

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which is “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all”, is a critical goal that is needed to be achieved for improved quality of life and the developmental advancement of any nation. The United Nations Sustainable Development reports identified some major challenges that can hinder Nigeria from achieving this goal: they include poor funding of education in the budgets, out-of-school-children, prolonged neglect of learning environments and facilities, among many others. We evaluated those identified critical factors of poor funding, poor school enrolment/out-of-school-children and poor school infrastructure using fishbone and problem tree analysis and also applied qualitative descriptive assessment of the 7 SDG 4 targets and the 3 enabling targets. Funding was identified as the key issue and it is also an underlying factor militating against the achievement of many other challenges. The other key challenge of poor school enrolment cannot be resolved with persisting insecurity and Almajiri problems in the northern parts of Nigeria. Without concerted effort to increase the budget for education and ensuring that allocated funds are not misappropriated, it will not be possible to achieve the SDG 4. This position is reinforced by the fact that Nigeria is currently ranked 159 out of 162 nations in our performance towards achieving the SDGs and also our not too good performance during the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era.