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ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATION RELATED MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGS)

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The federal government of Nigeria faced with the challenge of meeting the MDGs, believes that the attainment of the goals will be put in jeopardy as long as the human and material resources of the country remain under tapped. One of the strategies adopted by the country in her multi-pronged approach towards attaining these goals and meeting the needs of people is the empowerment of people through education. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for its capacity to foster gender equity and sustained economic growth also endorses early and ambitious investment in basic education.

However, investing in any form of education can only have the anticipated impact if there are well-trained and proficient teachers. This article aims at addressing the role of excellent teacher education in meeting some of the goals of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nigeria and the implications of this for excellent teacher education in the country. It begins by highlighting the major objectives of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in the country and its relevance to the meeting of some of the MDGs, and the attendant demand for qualified and competent teachers in the country.

Azikiwe (1988) attests to the fact that the rate of illiteracy as regards the girl-child in the country is alarming. In most Nigerian homes women or female children are relegated to the background and their male counterparts are given preferential treatment.

Some people do not even believe in the education of their female children (Abdulazeez, 2004). However, when the girl-child is exposed to a type of education like the primary education, she will be able to read and write and therefore be in a better position to seek for further development of her potentials in higher institutions. Education according to Okeke (1988) is one of the major ways of empowering women to enable them contribute maximally towards national development. The popular saying that if you educate a man, you educate an individual, but ‘if you educate a woman, you educate a nation’ explains the importance of the education of the girl-child. This must be the reason why the girl-child and her right to education should be given a central place of prominence on the human development agenda, since it is clear that human capital development is one of the developmental agenda of this present government.

The Millennium Development Goals are the world‘s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions (poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter and exclusion) while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights—the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security as pledged in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Millennium Declaration (UN Millennium Project, 2005).

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that were officially established after the Millennium summit of the United Nations in 2000, based on the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations agreed to achieve the goals by the year 2015. The goals include;i.  Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger

ii. Achieving universal primary education

iii.  Promoting gender equality and empowering women

iv. Reducing child mortality

v. Improving maternal health

vi. Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

vii. Ensuring environmental sustainability

viii. Developing a global partnership for development (United Nations, 2009).

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