International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

In Nigeria the goals of the Ministry of Education are access and quality at all levels of education in the country. This is to say that quality education must be provided to all Nigerian citizens at all levels irrespective of economic, social, cultural and political differences. For this reason the Federal Government declared free education for all its citizens at all levels of the educational system. Unfortunately however beyond this it has not done anything tangible to ensure these goals are achieved. In other words, the public higher education institutions are neglected. The aim of this study therefore is to examine the extent of this neglect and its implications on imbedded socio-economic inequalities in Nigerian social order. The major methodology used is secondary data collection and analysis focusing on two universities in Adamawa state; one, public (Modibbo Adama University of Technology, MAUTECH) and the other, private (American University of Nigeria, AUN). The findings show that there is serious neglect in the funding of MAUTECH, which is a public university, as opposed to the funding of AUN, which is a private university. This neglect translate into inequalities between the two universities in terms of availability of human and material resources necessary to provide quality teaching and learning. The study also show that AUN fees are so high that only the children of the rich can afford admission into the institution. Consequently, in Nigeria, the rich are getting better quality education while the children of the poor are left with less quality education in the public schools and therefore better prepared to compete in job market. Inequalities in Nigeria social order are then perpetuated.