Education Sector in Nigeria Needs Complete Overhaul-Prof Olagoke

The major discussion among Nigerians presently, is the fallen standard of education and the erosion of morals and values in society.

Cultism, gangster ism, banditry and prostitution are the past time of students in various educational institutions in the country.

A new set of leaders have been elected in the general elections and Nigerians are hoping that these new set of leaders at all levels of governance would salvage the education sector from total collapse.

In this interview the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke says the Governors elect in the states ought to overhaul the education sector

What do you suggest the Governors elect in the states should do to save the education sector from total collapse ?

The major problems the new set of Governors would have, is the problem of godfather ism, whose objective is to hijack programs, while also dictating their terms for the newly elected Governors. This is for the purpose of justifying the means through which they emerged as Governors elect.

So it might not be easy predicting the path the Governors elect will thread, unless they are resolute in their plans to serve the people and correct the wrongs of the past, irrespective of whose ox is gored.

On education, the major break through they may have, is to use the period of between when they are elected to when they would be sworn in, to put in place a number of think thank groups, which would serve as the brain box of what ever they intend to do, using SWOT analysis to map out the areas of strength and opportunities as well as areas of weaknesses and threats in terms of material sourcing and human capital.

These groups must be saddled with definitive path of achieving worthwhile results.The Governors elect are equally expected to look well for capable hands with whom they would steer the ship of governance of the states, while making good use of the research reports from the think thank groups. The Governors elect must avoid putting round pegs in square holes.

On education for example, the sector needs a complete overhaul.

Public schools need renovation, that would be in line with the accepted standards of conducive environment for learning. Provision must be made for durable structure, facilities, utilities and furniture.

Government must make it a criminal offense for parents, whose grown up children are not is school.

This will reduce, drastically, the present challenges of 13.6 million out-of-school children, constituting nuisance to the society, most especially in the areas of street hawking and various other abuses.

Mechanism must be put in place to prevent truancy in schools and to promote punctuality as the soul of business.

Teachers must not be owed their monthly salaries again, while the issue of retirees must not only stop at effective and prompt payment, but government must have a way of utilizing their experiences.

The 6–3–3–4 educational system is still relevant, if government could be more serious in the area of facility update for the graduates to be rightly fortified with scientific tools for problem solving. This is so, because they are the very foundation for Nigeria’s future prospects and also reservoir for tertiary institutions.

Much as we have insufficient number of tertiary institutions in terms of the Colleges of Education, Polytechnics and Universities, the capacity is still low to absorb millions of prospective applicants yearly.

Regardless of this, for the economy to become timely sustainable, vocational and technical education are vital. And the establishment of such institutions must be at a reasonable cost.

The essence of TIVET is to complement the entrepreneurship education for final year students in higher institutions, on the challenges of job creation and small and medium scale industries.

Government needs to focus more on adequately funding the programs, which if allowed to flourish, will be the solution to the rush for white collar jobs.

However, the sensitization of parents and the society to remove stigmatization of this sector is highly necessary because products of TIVET are semi-skilled and they may need some short term proficiency courses from the universities and polytechnics to met up with the expected standard and quality.

 Above all, adequate funding is the bedrock of realizing the goal of education, which is to empower students in knowledge and skill for competence as well as to reform his or her character to be able to meet up in the world of career management and progression for him or her to meet up with global best practices.

Government needs to beam its search light on the accreditation of programs for schools, public and private alike, since their products would be confronted with the future challenges of the labor market.

Currently, the statistics of the history of education funding in Nigeria has always been from 7 per cent to 10 per cent characteristics allocation from the annual national budget. This is contrary to the minimum benchmark of 26 per cent, recommended by UNESCO.

Besides this, UNICEF stands on the fact that education is a right that every child must go to school, for education to be functional. Equally adequate funding is essential and this must take care of the capacity building needs of the teachers while poor parents must equally be relieved by government’s prompt intervention. 

Performances in the states, most especially in WAEC and NECO always reflect the level of seriousness of such state governments on the education of our pupils and students.

Earn up to N40,000 every month referring people to Joomta.com. 100% free to join. Visit my page link below to learn more:

https://bit.ly/2ul096V