IMPACT OF ECONOMIC CRISIS ON EDUCATION: CASE STUDY OF SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

The national politics determines the quality of education policies, programs and processes and eventually the products (results or outcomes). Government underfunding and commoditisation of education is likely to worsen the crisis in education. The current economic crisis confronting many governments is creating severe conflicts in educational sector of many nations. On the one hand they had to reduce, their budget deficits to avoid excess indebtedness. On the other hand, they had to promote education firstly to alleviate unemployment as a short run crisis measure and secondly to avoid the deterioration of human capital in the long run. High percentage of national budgets focuses on the public funding, which greatly affect the education sector. Some governments carried out overall budget cuts. These had negative effects on teachers, students and families. This research studies the impact of economic crises on education in the South-West part of Nigeria. The collected survey data shows that the current economic crisis in Nigeria had an observable impact on the education sector as many State Governments proceeded to drastic budget cuts on education. Only few State Governments, however, acknowledged the importance of the educational sector in overcoming the current economic crisis. These few States see the need of increased spending on education, supporting students, families and education providers as a way to enhance productivity and efficiency of State economy. The result of this research shows a great difference between the States cutting budget on education because of economy, economic downturn and those pumping more fund into education sector in the mist of economic crises. This research concludes that adequately funded educational system, if genuinely promoted and honestly managed is capable of creating mass-fully developed human talents whose creative thinking would get any nation out of the economic crisis and permanently shut the door to its future occurrenc