Dissecting the education crisis in the North – Part 3

However, if human beings are inherently lazy then what determines how hard people choose to work? Of course, we know that hard work pays too. Given the current level of innovation, more work typically means more benefits. Imagine two farmers who both have the same level of knowledge and technical capacity. The farmer who works harder would probably get more benefits than the one who doesn’t work as hard. At least until the lazy farmer figures out some genius way to get ahead. In the meantime, the lazy farmer is worse off. So, what determines how hard the farmers choose to work? The short answer is competition.

It is an interesting dilemma that societies struggle to solve. On the one hand hard work does lead to better outcomes with societies where people work harder tending to be more productive. On the other hand, societies where people exploit their inherent laziness and try to figure out better and easier ways to do things also tend to be more productive. Competition is what allows both hard work and laziness to co-exist. You can think of competition as setting the bar for how lazy people are allowed to be. In very competitive societies, people can exploit their laziness and innovate but still have to put in a minimum amount of effort. In less competitive societies, the minimum amount of effort is not as high.

To be fair there is some justification for this type of arrangement that sets a lower bar for disadvantaged areas. To use a popular international example, if you end up with a company where all the jobs are taken by white men then you know something is wrong somewhere. Affirmative action policies are present all over the world, and aims to give disadvantaged groups a “leg-up”. From this context, the varying cut off marks, and the consequences of federal character are simply affirmative action policies.

Be that as it may, if effort is important, then students who are able to achieve similar outcomes without putting as much effort as others, will eventually be worse off than students who have to put in more effort. If students from some parts don’t have to work as hard to get into schools, or to get government jobs, then it is a structural disadvantage, because in the long term, those students will simply not be able to compete with students from areas where the bar was set much higher. This, in my opinion, is the third major structural problem with education in the north: students frequently do not need to compete or work as hard as their peers in other parts of the country, not because they are different but because the bar is set much lower.
• Nonso Obikili is an economist currently roaming somewhere between Nigeria and South Africa. The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not reflect the views of his employers.