There was a time when education stood firmly at the centre of Yoruba social advancement. Families made enormous sacrifices to keep their children in school, communities invested in educational institutions, teachers were respected as builders of society, and academic achievement was widely regarded as one of the surest paths to dignity and social mobility. That commitment helped produce generations of teachers, lawyers, doctors, engineers, academics, journalists, administrators and entrepreneurs who made significant contributions to Nigeria and the wider world. But the conditions that produced that advantage have changed, and the Yoruba cannot afford to assume that an educational reputation built by previous generations will automatically survive into the future.
The challenge today is not simply whether Yoruba children are attending school. The more important question is what they are actually learning and whether that education is preparing them for the world they will inherit. A child can spend more than a decade in classrooms and still leave without strong literacy, numeracy, digital or practical skills. A university graduate can possess a certificate and remain unable to secure productive employment. A society can continue to celebrate education while quietly allowing the quality of education itself to deteriorate. That contradiction deserves urgent attention because the value of education ultimately lies not in the certificate alone but in the capacity, knowledge and opportunities it creates.
The Yoruba must therefore move beyond measuring educational success by the number of graduates produced each year. Degrees and diplomas remain important, but qualifications without competence are becoming increasingly inadequate. The economy is changing rapidly, and young people now need academic knowledge alongside technical ability, digital skills, communication, critical thinking, creativity and the capacity to solve real problems. Schools that prepare students primarily to pass examinations are not preparing them sufficiently for the economy they will encounter after graduation. The objective should be to produce people who can create value, not merely people who can present certificates.
This is particularly important because economic competition is no longer confined to individual states or even to Nigeria. A young Yoruba professional in Ibadan, Lagos, Akure or Osogbo is increasingly participating in a labour market connected to Africa and the wider global economy. Technology allows companies to recruit talent across borders, while remote work has opened opportunities that were unimaginable to previous generations. This presents an enormous opportunity for educated young Nigerians, but it also exposes the consequences of weak human capital. Where education fails to produce competitive skills, economic opportunities will naturally move towards people and societies that possess them.
Governments across the South-West therefore have a responsibility that goes far beyond constructing school buildings and commissioning classrooms. Education must be treated as long-term infrastructure. Governments must invest consistently in teacher training, laboratories, libraries, learning materials, digital infrastructure, technical education and reliable monitoring of learning outcomes. A new classroom may look impressive at a commissioning ceremony, but what happens inside that classroom is what ultimately determines whether public investment has achieved anything meaningful. The real measure of educational policy should be what students know, what they can do and what opportunities become available to them after leaving school.
The quality of teachers deserves particular attention. No education system can consistently rise above the quality of the people responsible for teaching its children. Teachers need proper training, professional development, adequate working conditions and clear standards. The teaching profession must also become attractive enough to draw talented people who genuinely want to educate the next generation. It is difficult to demand better outcomes from students while neglecting the people expected to produce those outcomes.
The Yoruba community itself must also accept responsibility. It is not enough to criticise governments whenever schools fail while assuming that government alone should solve every educational problem. Yoruba society has a long tradition of communal self-help and institution-building. That tradition should be directed towards education once again. Successful professionals can mentor students. Alumni associations can support their former schools. Businesses can provide scholarships, internships and technical training. Traditional institutions can mobilise communities around educational development. Religious organisations can provide learning support and scholarships without allowing education to become another platform for division.
Parents also have a role in changing the way educational success is understood. For too long, academic achievement has sometimes been reduced to examination scores, university admission and the prestige associated with certain professions. But not every child needs to become a doctor, lawyer or engineer to become successful. A young person who is talented in technology, design, publishing, agriculture, engineering, the creative industries or skilled trades should not be treated as though they have chosen an inferior path. A functional education system should identify ability, develop talent and provide different routes to productive adulthood.
This makes technical and vocational education particularly important. Many societies have historically treated university education as the highest form of achievement while regarding technical skills as a second-class option. That mindset is increasingly difficult to defend. Modern economies need electricians, machinists, technicians, software developers, printers, designers, builders, agricultural specialists, mechanics, engineers and countless other skilled professionals. A society that trains young people primarily for white-collar employment will eventually create a serious mismatch between what its education system produces and what its economy needs.
The Yoruba must also place greater emphasis on research and innovation. The region has universities, polytechnics, research institutions and a large population of educated professionals. Yet education should produce more than graduates searching for employment. It should produce ideas, businesses, inventions and solutions to local problems. Universities should build stronger relationships with industry, while students should be encouraged to apply knowledge to problems within their communities. Research should not remain permanently trapped within academic papers when it can be converted into products, services, businesses and policies that improve people’s lives.
Another concern is the growing inequality in access to quality education. Wealthier families can increasingly place their children in better-resourced private schools, provide computers and internet access, pay for additional lessons and, in some cases, send them abroad. Poorer families are often left dependent on overstretched public institutions. If that gap continues to widen, education risks becoming less of a vehicle for social mobility and more of a mechanism through which existing economic advantages are passed from one generation to another. That would undermine one of the most important social functions education has historically performed.
The response cannot simply be another government programme or another conference where officials make promises. Educational reform requires continuity. Governments change, but children remain in classrooms. Policies should therefore be designed around long-term objectives rather than short political cycles. There should be measurable targets for literacy, numeracy, teacher quality, school completion, technical skills and access to digital learning. Citizens should be able to assess whether those targets are being achieved. Where programmes fail, governments should be willing to acknowledge failure and change course rather than defend poor results for political reasons.
There is also a need to restore seriousness to the culture of learning itself. Technology has created extraordinary access to information, but access to information is not the same thing as knowledge. Young people need the discipline to read deeply, question assumptions, research properly and develop independent judgment. Schools and families must encourage curiosity rather than treating education solely as a route to examinations. A society that produces graduates who can pass tests but cannot analyse problems, communicate clearly or distinguish reliable information from misinformation has not solved its educational problem.
The Yoruba still possess significant advantages. The South-West has major universities and polytechnics, a large professional class, vibrant commercial centres, a strong private sector, extensive diaspora networks and a deep historical culture of learning. But advantages become meaningless when they are not maintained. The fact that previous generations produced outstanding professionals does not guarantee that future generations will do the same. Every generation must build the institutions that will sustain its own progress.
This is why the Yoruba must reclaim their educational advantage, not by looking backwards with nostalgia, but by rebuilding an education system capable of competing with the demands of the future. The goal should not simply be to produce more graduates. It should be to produce young people who can think independently, create value, compete globally, innovate locally and contribute meaningfully to society. Education must once again become not merely something families pursue because it is culturally respected, but a deliberate instrument for building a capable and prosperous society.
The Yoruba cannot afford complacency. A reputation for valuing education is not the same thing as maintaining an excellent education system. If the society wants its children to remain competitive, it must be prepared to invest in their education, demand better from its institutions and accept collective responsibility for the results.
The future will not reward the Yoruba simply because previous generations were educated. It will reward the society if the present generation has the courage to educate its children better than the generation before it.