Long-term neglect, poor funding and corruption have reportedly led to the near collapse of Nigeria’s education sector and bringing to the fore several strategies been pursued by the Federal Government to revive the battered system with a view to raising quality, access and equity.
President Muhammadu Buhari recently organised a special retreat for the Federal Executive Council in Abuja on challenges facing the education sector during which participants called on government to declare a state of emergency on education and make more investment in the lower and higher levels of the sector.
Summing up the major problems facing education in a documentary at the retreat, a former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, pointed out that the rot in education was mainly as a result of policy incoherence, teacher inadequacy and poor funding amongst others and showed how the problems associated with teaching and learning have affected the effectiveness of the education system in providing solutions to ‘our social security problem.’
The documentary revealed how a huge number of students in hostels and classrooms across the country were learning under dilapidated and unhealthy conditions due to crumbling school infrastructure and the way inadequate school facilities in many places have obstructed access and affected the delivery of quality education.
There were millions of out-of-school children and countless others were being pushed out of school as a result of a number of unattended factors. It was disclosed that children, irrespective of their backgrounds, must have access to schools to be able to avoid naughtiness and make constructive choices for themselves.
He noted that literacy rate hasn’t improved because the number of illiterate adults in the country was still frightening while academic corruption, cultism, plagiarism and cooked data were on the increase especially at the higher institutions of learning.
Proffering the way out, Prof Okebukola called for the urgent need to improve teachers’ professional development in such a way that they redefine their roles and increase their responsibilities. Teachers must also have sound pedagogic and content knowledge, he stated.
In his remarks at the event, President Muhammadu Buhari pledged that government was committed to revitalizing the education system and making it more responsive and globally competitive.
He made public that Nigeria’s participation in all relevant international education for a, along with government investment in education and collaboration with development partners, is an indication of high level of commitment towards ensuring that every capable Nigerian receives good, quality education.
The President believed that the state of education in the country calls for serious concern, saying, “That is why we are all gathered here today. The problem is no longer a secret that the quality of education in Nigeria requires greater attention and improvement.”
He stated “That our country is facing numerous challenges in education and all other sectors as a result of historical abuses, mindless impunity and corruption is not news to anyone.”
Buhari observed that government was determined to turnaround the sector for the better and had already made appreciable progress in that respect. To him, the summit would among other things, sharpen strategies for addressing the challenges of basic and secondary education, teacher training and professional development, technical and vocational education.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo affirmed that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education was an important ingredient in national development and more students should be majoring in those fields.
He said “it will be difficult to provide food, shelter and health without STEM.”
The VP considered flexible learning strategies as a better approach while technology should be used in teaching large number of people rather than building more classrooms.
The minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, put forward that education was a collective responsibility and its failure could be taken as the failure of the entire country. “We are all involved in education because it affects us all,” he said.
He talked about how the education system has failed Nigerians since independence and unable to prepare children for life as responsible and creative citizens of the 21st century.
“Basic education constitutes the foundation and it has to be given all the attention it deserves. We need to ask questions on what we teach and who does the teaching,” he said.
The Minister disclosed that more attention would be paid to teachers and teaching as a profession, mass literacy, adult education, distance learning as well as nomadic education.
He said “we must learn to make education attractive to the best brains, make its study free, its outcome lucrative and accord it the respect it deserves. That is why we must attract and retain the best brains in the classroom as it is done in many other nations of the world.”
The Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah, stated that the retreat has looked into the major problems facing the education sector in the country.
