INEQUALITY OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN NIGERIA: IMPACTS ON THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The paper reviews inequality in educational opportunities in Nigeria and its impacts on national development. The conflict theory supports the article. The author highlighted different inequality types in education impacting national development. The script argued that inequality in education contributed to the increase of out-of-school and street children in Nigeria. Besides, the Almajiri education system in Northern Nigeria is a product of educational inequality because they are primarily children of underprivileged citizens who could not afford formal western education. It was believed that out-of-school-children, street children and the Alimajiris were those recruited to be the deadly Boko-Haram and the terrorist causing the security challenge for the nation today. The paper observed that monies supposed to be used for national development, such as agriculture, education, commerce and industries, are used to buy weapons to fight terrorism and other criminals. Some recommendations were suggested to help the nation solve the challenge of inequality in education. One such recommendation is to enforce a law to make children of government officials and politicians remain in Nigeria public schools for their education instead of overseas.