Strikes, poor funding and lack of incentives for teachers are among some of the key issues that need urgent attention this year. Uchechukwu Nnaike reports
The education sector is not likely to miss 2011. What with the killing of members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in some northern states, during the violence that followed the April general elections and the risks/irregularities that marred the conduct of both the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and the post-UTME exercise, causing public outcry and renewed call for the scrapping of the NYSC, UTME and post-UTME; poor performance in the SSCE, conflicting results released by WAEC, ASUU strikes and the like.
As with other sectors, hopes are high that the new year will be better and some stakeholders shared their expectations with THISDAY.
Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Peter Okebukola, said the year ended with unacceptable performance on most indicators including literacy rate, gross and net enrolment rates at the basic education level, higher education participation rate, quality of education and efficiency.
“On most global and regional league tables on these indicators, Nigeria is still poorly rated. The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i has been extremely forthright in her assessment of the decay and has been very systematic and dogged in pushing a transformation agenda. I applaud her commitment to the early restoration of the system. Several years of decay cannot be cleared overnight like mist in the early morning sun.
She is steadily building on the gains of her predecessors in office. I note with delight that 2011 closed with a 10 percent improvement in the performance of candidates who sat for the November/December SSCE, conducted by the WAEC. If such improvement is sustained in the years ahead without the examination bodies lowering standards to allow many candidates to attain credit-level passes and the on-going ASUU strike is speedily resolved, then we will be on a steady march to general improvement and will ward off the fiery darts frequently thrown by Nigerians at the education system. We must keep in mind that the road ahead is still long and tortuous and we will not berth on the golden shore of the desired education system by sailing on a boat steered during the life of one administration.”
For 2012, he said attention should turn to the speedy resolution of the ASUU strike; general improvement in the environment for teaching and learning at all levels; improvement in the quality and welfare of teachers; and enhanced funding for the system. “It is sad, very sad to say that these recipes for improvement are narrated year in, year out and little progress is made, but we must continue to shout ourselves hoarse until our leaders and indeed, all stakeholders listen and act.”
International Educational Strategist, Prof. Pai Obanya, called for the implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) according to the recommendations at the inception of the scheme in 1999.
He said UBE was not meant to be restricted to only primary and junior secondary schools, but all levels of education, adding that it is supposed to cover children from ages zero to 18.
He expressed concern that the commission lays more emphasis on the amount of money spent and the number of contracts awarded, instead of on the number of children that are enjoying the scheme. “The emphasis should be on the number of children that have been enrolled and the number of people that are not, and how to ensure that all children of school age are in school.”
On his part, Chairman of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Oghenekaro Ogbinaka, called on the government to upgrade the three core facilities in any educational institution- libraries, laboratories and classrooms to internationally acceptable standard and to make the universities attractive to foreign academics and students; also for the best brains to desire them as first option of career line.
Chairman, Lagos State Polytechnic chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Mr. Arowolo Olatunji, appealed to the federal government to honour the 1999 ASUU/FGN agreement so that there would be peace and progress in tertiary institutions across the country.
He also called on both federal and state governments to aim at investing at least 26 per cent of their total annual budget in education as suggested by the UNESCO. He accused government of spending so much money on irrelevant projects at the expense of education and called for more funding for technical and vocational education to equip graduates to become job creators, thereby reducing the rate of unemployment in the country.
Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Technical and Vocational Education Board, Mr. Olawumi Gasper, called for more emphasis on job competence, than on paper qualification, which he said compounds the unemployment landscape in the country.
He called on the federal government to pay more attention to the training of secondary school leavers on vocational skills to redirect the “JAMB casualties” to apprenticeship training programmes in key skills areas of high demand such as construction trades, auto-mechatronics, hairdressing/beauty therapy/cosmetology, instrumentation/electrical appliances repairs and welding.
At the end of the two-year apprenticeship training, he suggested that the beneficiaries be encouraged to enroll for international certifications, to afford them more windows of opportunities globally. “Government at the federal and state levels should also commence in 2012, the Graduate Vocational Apprenticeship, geared towards vocational training and employability skills for nine months. This will prepare such trainees for the world of entrepreneurship.” He also suggested the establishment of small, but growing enterprises, which would employ five to 10 Nigerians.
A legal practitioner and parent, Dr. Jimmy Otseuwa called for more attention to the issue of brain drain in federal universities. He said most lecturers leave federal universities for private ones as a result of poor welfare package and lack of incentives by government. This, he said, contributes to the decay in public universities.
He also called on the government to approve the 70 years retirement age for professors as contained the ASUU/FGN agreement because most of them would still be useful to the system after 65, even as it addresses the shortage of professors in some faculties.
Other issues that require immediate attention, he said, is the provision of adequate infrastructure and renovation of existing ones, as well as the upgrading of libraries to e-libraries.
He also appealed to the government to cancel importation duties for educational materials like science equipment, books and printing materials to make them affordable for students and teachers.
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