HIGHER EDUCATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION

AMONG THE YOUTH

BY

OKUNOLA, PHILIP OLAYIDE (Ph.D),

ONYENE.V.E(Ph.D.)(frontisresource@yahoo.com)

SUBAR, S.TAYO.

ASHIRU, AL-MAHROOF OLASEEWO (sirmooree@yahoo.ca)

PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 8TH REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF HIGHER

EDUCATION RESEARCH POLICY NETWORK

VENUE: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE

(IITA), IBADAN

AUGUST, 2008
ABSTRACT

Education in Nigeria and higher education in particular, are fundamental to

the construction of a knowledge economy and worthwhile society in any
nation hence, from a global perspective, economic, political, technological
and social developments are increasingly driven by the advancement and
application of knowledge, skills and socialization acquired in the process of
this education. This paper presents an empirical study of higher education
and poverty reduction among the youth using the University of Lagos,
Nigeria. A total of 330 youth population comprised the sample drawn from
the eight faculties on campus. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested
using chi-square statistical tool at 0.05 level of significance. The major
findings are that higher education is significant in exposing the youth to
talent discovery, physical and intellectual development among the youth and
has high potency reduction for poverty reduction among the youth.

Introduction

The dawn of the 21st century has brought profound and fundamental changes
to economics, technology, politics, culture, morals, social values and ethics.
Globalization is the driving force in all these changes. While globalization has
induced the collapse of time and space, it has also expanded opportunities
and challenges for individuals and for nations and has sidelined the weak and
unprepared. Anya (2002). The task of the university education will then be to
empower the youths to be able to cope with the dynamics of globalization.
Consequently the university must have an organic linkage with the industrial
and economic environment to contribute to economic growth of the nation.

Education has for long been recognized and accepted as a panacea for
Nigeria’s ills and woes. Particularly so is the case of higher education.
Stupendous amount of money and other resources, even though inadequate
are expended on the universities annually. Unarguably al stakeholders look
up to the universities as the nation’s beacon of hope, light and civilization.
For this reason, besides over 50 public universities are springing up all over
the nooks and crannies of the country (Ejiogu and Onyene, 2006).

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Nigeria ‘s philosophy of education is aimed at education that foster the worth
and development of the individual, for each individuals sake, and for the
general development of the society there is need for empowerment so as to
break the chains of poverty for necessary liberation.

Are the Nigerian youths hopeful? Do they see the light? Are they civilized?
The quest and agitation for the empowerment of the youth and their
liberation through higher education is fast becoming almost hysterical given
the often reported cases of incessant strike actions by lecturers, lack or
inadequate infrastructures in the universities, brain drain, and so on, within
the university system.

Instance abound when university graduates are not employable in the labour
market. The situation becomes worrisome and intriguing with the jet-speed
rate of opening up of new universities with its attendant alleged
unemployment of “unqualified” staff, and stragglers from older universities.

The Concept of Higher Education and Poverty

Higher education means different things to many people, but the purpose is
perceived to be the same. It is the type of education that focuses on
professionalization, by empowering the partaker of this level of education
with skills that are not necessarily the function of formal educational process.
This type of skills emanates from students’ interaction with their peers,
teachers and other members of their academic community.

Though these experiences that culminate into skills makes students sojourn
in their academic environment a complete one, which necessitates the saying
“ passing through the school without the school passing through the student”
The proponents of this statement are of the opinion that students who passed

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through the school without the school passing through them have learnt only
partially regardless of their grades at the end of their academic pursuit in the
university, thereby limiting their opportunities. This is corroborated by Gay
2005, who opined that poverty can only be eliminated if the students to
whom implicit promises are being by urging them to attend school actually
receive some tangible benefit for their years spent in school.

Higher education includes teaching, research and social service activities of

universities, and within the realm of teaching, it includes both the
undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education and the
graduate school). Higher education generally involves work towards a degree
level or foundation for degree qualification. In most developed countries a
high proportion of the population (up to 50%) now enters higher education is
therefore every important to national economy, both as a source of trained
and educated personnel for the rest of the economy. Schofield, K. 1999.

Higher education is based on theoretical expertise. It might be contrasted

with higher vocational education, which concentrates on both practice and
theory. Deciding to further education and attain a degree tends to improve
many aspects of life. People with college degrees tend to earn more money
and salary increases over the years are more substantial than for those that
do not have a college degree or university degree. Additionally, people that
have a college degree are less likely to go through long bouts of
unemployment. However attaining certifications and/or degrees related to
your field can yield better jobs and ongoing opportunities (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia).

University qualifications need to match employers’ and labour market

requirements as closely as possible. Mass unemployment of university
graduates is the result where university programmes and the labour market

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are at variance. The issue of relevance, utilitarian criteria based on prospects
of income generation at completion of a programme should be uppermost in
the programmes provided by universities. The idea of pursuing knowledge for
its own sake or of the sake of engaging in a programme of study given a
passion for learning in a particular subject area will seem acquaint if it is
remembered at all. (Roberts, 1999).

Youth (in the developed world): like all identities, is a culturally relative
manifestation whose meanings and applications are specific to certain times
and manifestation whose meaning and applications are specific to certain
times and locales. For those living in present-day western cultures, the term
youth refers to persons who are no longer children and not yet adults. In a
strictly legal sense, the term is typically applied to a person from the time of
their early teens until a point between 16 and 21, after which the person is
legally an adult. As an adult they are endowed priviledges such as the right to
vote and consume alcohol e.tc. used colloquially, however, the term generally
refers to a broader, more ambiguous field of reference – from physically
adolescent to those in their late 20s, the United Nations, for example, defines
youth as people between the ages of 15 and 24 years inclusive (United
Nations Education and Scientific Children Organisation, 2002b).

Poverty refers to a situation and process of serious deprivation or lack of

resources and material necessary for living within a minimum standard
conducive to human dignity and well being (NEST, 1991). Poverty connotes
deprivation of the means of subsistence. The manifestation of poverty, i.e
inadequate distribution of resources, access to basic social services like
education and health, food scarcity, low life expectancy, and lack of
participation in decision making processes (Braun, 1999, Carrey 1999;World
Bank 1999; Web et al 1992;Ravnborg, 1996).

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For the purpose of this paper poverty is viewed as deprivation of common
necessities that determine the quality of life, which include food, clothing,
shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of
opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty and/or
to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

This can be measured in terms of absolute or relative poverty. Absolute

poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent in over time between
countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage
of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body,
which may lead to extreme poverty.

United Nations 2002 report defines extreme poverty as “poverty that kills”,
depriving individuals of the means to stay alive in the face of hunger, disease
and environmental hazards. This is further substantiated by Moore (2007) in
his report for the World Bank, that extreme poverty implies living on less than
1 dollar per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. The proportion
of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty fell
from 28 percent in 1990 to 21 percent in 2001. Looking at the period 1981 –
2001, the percentage of the world’s population living on less than $1 per day
has halved.

Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of

the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that
poverty may be a function of the diminished “capability” of people to live the
kinds of lives they value. The social aspects of poverty may include lack of
access to information, education, health care, or political power. Poverty may
also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable
social relationships, experienced as exclusion, dependency, and diminished
capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other
people in society.

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Statement of the Problem

The growth and development of this country will to a large extent be

determined by quality, in character and in learning, of the products of our
universities. UNESCO policy (1997) posited that basic education for all should
incorporate: literacy, income generation, health care, child care, family
planning, food management, union education, labour laws, civil and voting
rights, peace education, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and drug
awareness (UNESCO 2002). The questions are what is the hope of Nigerian
youth in universities? Do they really discover their potentials having gone
through the university? What then can we say are the contributions of Nigeria
universities to poverty reduction among the Nigerian youth? It becomes
imperative, therefore, to ascertain the potency of Nigerian higher education
for poverty reduction among the youth and to proffer measures for
enhancement and sustainability of youth empowerment.

Methodology

The study was carried out using the descriptive survey research design. The
youths in University of Lagos constituted the study which comprises 500
respondents. They were diploma and 100-300 level students, from the eight
faculties of the University of Lagos, Akoka campus, Lagos, Nigeria. Higher
Education Potency for Poverty Reduction Questionnaire (HEPPRQ) designed
by the researchers was the data-gathering instrument. It measure sure such
poverty reduction potencies as talent discovery, facilitation of mind
development in the youth, good leadership skills, enabling intellectual
development, development of social ethics through positive interaction,
exposure to entrepreneurial activities, provision of mindset for creative ideas,
preparation for rendering payable service (income generation), inculcation of
technological ideas for product development, self esteem among peers,
position of youth for global alignment with contemporaries in the western

7
world and realization of the academic inclination (discipline). Colleagues
affirmed the face validity and reliability of the instrument

The researchers personally distributed the questionnaire to 500 respondents

across the 8 faculties on campus on different occasions; some of the
respondents returned the questionnaire immediately while others returned
theirs the following day. Of the 500 copies of the questionnaire distributed,
330 (66%) usable copies were returned. However, the analysis was done
using both descriptive and inferential statistics. To be precise, simple
percentage and chi-square statistical tools were used.

Findings

Total response of the respondents was done by finding the percentages. The
analysis is presented in table1.

Table 1: Frequency count of responses and percentage ratings.

S/N POTENCY INDICES ALWAYS OFTEN SOMETIMES NEVER TOTAL

1 University environment and 200(60.6 20(6.06%) 110(33.33%) - 330

talent discovery 0%)
2 Higher education development 160(48.4 90(27.27%) 30(9.09%) 50(15.15%) 330
and e youth’s minds 8%)

3 Higher education and good 190(57.5 50(15.15%) 50(15.15%) 40(12.12%) 330

leadership 7%)
4 Higher education and 200(60.6 50(15.15%) 70(21.21%) 10(3.03%) 330
intellectual development 0%)
5 Social ethics through the 170(51.5 70(21.21%) 80(24.24%) 10(3.03%) 330
university 1%)
6 Higher education, 120(36.3 110(33.33% 90(27.27%) 10(3.03%) 330
parliamentary and governance 6%) )
process
7 Entrepreneurial activities at 110 120(36.36% 80(24.24%) 20(6.06%) 330
school (33.33%) )

8 University environment and 170 100(30.30% 50(15.15%) 10(3.03%) 330

mindset for creative ideas (51.51%) )

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9 Rendering payable service 170 80 40(12.12%) 40(12.12%) 330
(income generation) (51.51%) (24.24%)

10 University education and 180 70 70 10 330

technological ideas (54.54%) (21.21%) (21.21%) (3.03%)

11 Employment with related 70 80 150 30 330

industries (21.21%) (24.24%) (45.45%) (9.09%)

12 Sustenance in the face of job 90 110 20 330

scarcity 110 (27.27%) (33.33%) (6.06%)

(33.33%)

13 Apart from certification, 190 120 20 - 330

university environment and self (57.57%) (36.36%) (6.06%)
esteem
14 Global alignment with my 190 100 30 10 330
contemporaries in the western (57.57%) (30.30%) (9.09%) (3.03%)
world
15 Relevance of their academic 150 120 60 30 330
inclination (discipline) outside (45.45%) (36.36%) (18.18%) (9.09%)
their myopic perception

Hypothesis 1

There will be no significant influence of higher education exposure on youth

talent discovery. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical tool was
employed and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results are presented
in table 2 below.

Table 2: higher education and talent discovery.

S/N Items Always Often Sometimes Never Total

1. 200(60.60%) 20(6.06%) 110(33.33%) - 330
2. 160(48.48%) 90(27.27%) 30(9.09%) 50(15.15%) 330
3. 190(57.57%) 50(15.15%) 50(15.15%) 40(12.12%) 330
4. 200(60.60%) 50(15.15%) 70(21.21%) 10(3.03%) 330
5. 170(51.51%) 70(21.21%) 80(24.24%) 10(3.03%) 330
Column Total 920 280 140 110 1650
Average 460(55.75%) 140(16.96%) 70(20.60%) 55(6.66%) 825
Total

Chi-square observed value = 52.63 Degree of freedom = 12

Level of significance = 0.05 Critical Value = 21.03

The result revealed that the observed value (52.63) is greater than the
critical table value (21.03) given 12 degree of freedom at 0.05 level of
significance. The result is therefore significant, thus giving a basis for

9
rejection of the null hypothesis. It can then be inferred that higher education
has significant influence on the exposure of youth to talent discovery.

Hypothesis 2

Higher education will have no significant influence on the physical and

intellectual development of the youth. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square
statistical tool was employed and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The
results are presented in table 3 below.

Table 3: Higher education, Physical and Intellectual Development

S/N Items Always Often Sometimes Never Total

6 120(36.36%) 110(33.33%) 90(27.27%) 10(3.03%) 330
7 110(33.33%) 120(36.36%) 80(24.24%) 20(6.06%) 330
8 170(51.51%) 100(30.30%) 50(15.15%) 10(3.03%) 330
9 170(51.51%) 80(24.24%) 40(12.12%) 40(12.12%) 330
10 180(54.54%) 70(21.21%) 70(21.21%) 10(3.03%) 330
Column Total 750 480 330 90 1650
Average 375(45.45%) 240(29.09%) 165(20%) 45(5.45%) 825
Total

From the responses of the participants in the table, it is realized that the
observed chi-square (49.96) is greater than the critical value (21.03) at 12
degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance. The result is therefore
significant, thus higher education will have significant influence on physical
and intellectual development of the youth.

Hypothesis 3

Higher education will make significant provision of resources and materials

for youths’ adequate living. To test this hypothesis, the chi-square statistical
tool was employed and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results are
presented in table 4 below.

Table 4: Higher Education and Youth Adequate Living.

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S/N Items Always Often Sometimes Never Total
11 70(21.21%) 80(24.24%) 150(45.45%) 30(9.09%) 330
12 110(33.33%) 110(33.33%) 110(33.33%) 20(6.06%) 330
13 190(57.57%) 20(6.06%) 20(6.06%) - 330
14 190(57.57%) 30(9.09%) 30(9.09%) 10(3.03%) 330
15 150(45.45%) 120(36.36%) 60(18.18%) 30(9.09%) 330
Column Total 710 510 370 60 1650
Average 355(43.03%) 255(30.90%) 185(22.42%) 30(3.63%) 825
Total

Chi-square observed = 195.41 Degree of freedom = 12

Significance level = 0.05 Critical value = 21.03

The table above reflects that the chi-square calculated (195.41) exceed the
critical value (21.03) at 12 degree of freedom and 0.05 level of significance.
Thus higher education provides resources and materials for youths adequate
living.

Results and Discussion

Analysis revealed that the study population consisted of 330 participants,

210(63.63%) were males and 120 (36.365) females whose age ranges from
15 to 30 years. 300(90.90%) were single and 30 (9.09%) were married. 40
(12.12%) were in diploma 1, 10 (3.03%) in diploma 2, 90 (27.27%) in 100
level, 40 (12.12%) in 200 level and 150 (45.45%) in 300 level respectively.

Table shows the item-by-item analysis of the perception of the youth towards
the potency indices of higher education concerning poverty reduction.
Majority of the youth (60.60%) who participated in the study were of the
opinion that university environment enables the youth to discover their
talents and higher education poses challenges that enables intellectual
development in the youth. 57.57% of the respondents were in tune with the
fact that higher education inculcates good leadership skills in the youth, apart
from certification, being in the university environment gives them self esteem
among their contemporaries in the western world.

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Also 51.51% of the respondents who are in the majority opined that they gain
social ethics through positive interaction with their peers while in the
university. University environment provides the youth with the mindset for
creative ideas and talents developed in the university prepare them to render
payable service (income generation). 48.48% of the participants who were in
the majority believed that higher education facilitates the development of
youths’ mind, 45.45% were in tune with the fact that higher education make
the youth realize the relevance of their academic inclination (discipline)
outside their myopic perception. Majority of the respondents (54.54%) admit
that university education inculcates technological ideas that can facilitate
product development. However, 45.45% of the respondents felt that youth
only sometimes get employment with industries related to their discipline
before graduation, but 21.21% and 24.24% of them believe that youth with
university experience are always able to sustain themselves in the face of job
scarcity, equal percentage the participants contends that it happens only
sometimes.

The findings in this study showed that:

• Higher education is significant in exposing the youth to talent

discovery.

• Higher education has significant influence on physical and

intellectual development of the youth.

• Higher education makes significant provision of resources and

materials for youths’ adequate living.

The significance of higher education in exposing the youth to talent discovery

is corroborated by UNESCO policy 1997, which stipulates that basic education
for all should incorporate: literacy, income generation, health care, child care
family planning, food management, union education, labour laws, civil and
voting rights, peace education, environmental management, HIV/AIDS and
drug awareness.

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Also the finding relating to higher education having significant influence on
physical and intellectual development of youth, is justified by Subar and
Ashiru 2007, they opined that the students (youth) are the core input into our
educational institutions and the quality of the output (students) depends
largely on the provision of infrastructures capable of directly or indirectly
supporting, facilitating, influencing and encouraging the development of their
potentials. Therefore, the knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes
students (youth) acquire for life can make them fit into the cultural, social,
economic and political contexts of the society in which they live, and to work
and employment.

The finding that education makes significant provision of resources and

materials for youth’s adequate living, emanates from the fact that youth get
employment with industries related to their discipline even before
graduation, youths with university experience are mostly able to sustain
themselves in the face of job scarcity, apart from certification, being in the
university environment gives the youth self esteem among their peers,
higher education positions youth for global alignment with their
contemporaries in the western world and education makes the youth realize
the relevance of the relevance of their academic inclination (discipline)
outside their myopic perception.

Conclusion

 From the foregoing, it is permissible to justify the above stated with

the statement of the National Association of Colleges and Employers,
“there have been steady increases in college job placement”. This
means that not only are college graduates more likely to find good
jobs, but they progress after college. Ashiru and Owodiong 2008
declared that the absolute position of the university graduate is
declining as more educated workers are displacing less educated
workers in the same job, this shows that the Nigerian youth should
advance academically, this challenge to the youth is evidenced by the

13
 continuous increases in entry point requirement for jobs, for instance a
degree certificate is required to teach in a secondary school, while
doctoral degree is required to lecture in the university.

 The dawn of the 21st century has brought profound and fundamental
changes to economics, technology, politics, culture, morals, social
values and ethics through globalization. This globalization has induced
the collapse of time and space; it has also expanded opportunities and
challenges for the individual and for the nations and has sidelined the
weak and the unprepared.

Recommendations

 Government and university authorities should ensure that university

programmes and labour market are not at variance on the issue of
relevance, utilitarian criteria based on prospects of income generation
should be uppermost in the programmmes provided by the
universities.

 Universities must have an organic linkage with the industrial and

economic environment to contribute to economic growth.

14
  Acquisition of higher education should be encouraged among the
youth, through scholarship awards for those who lack the resources in
continuing their education.

 Government should encourage enrollment expansion in tertiary

institutions, which will avail more people the opportunity to higher
education, hence empowerment through skill acquisition and enhanced
intellectuality and human capital development that will necessitate
innovative ideas for job creation, employment and economic
advancement.

 University authorities should integrate entrepreneurial skills into

academic programmes of students for rounded preparation for the
world of work.

 Entrepreneurial Development Programme (EDP) should be provided in

all faculties to enable undergraduates develop and market products
and services relevant to their areas of study.

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