Education stakeholders' expectations high with Buhari victory
“The first step to arrest this situation is re-orientation or
re-branding. Students should study hard to get their high grades and not
through briberysorting, or other kinds of examination
malpractice and corruption.”
Stakeholders in the education sector have very
high expectations following General Mohammadu Buhari’s victory in the
March 28, 2015 presidential election by INEC. The President elect, had,
during his campaign, promised to restore the past glory of education in
Nigeria and instill discipline in all schools.
He
said: “The first step to arrest this situation is re-orientation or
re-branding. Students should study hard to get their high grades and not
through bribery vis-à-vis sorting, or other kinds of examination
malpractice and corruption.”
Buhari also vowed to
evolve creative solutions to address some of the challenges in the
sector. During his campaign in Abuja, he listed the challenges facing
the sector as underfunding, indiscipline, shortage of qualified
teachers, corruption and lack of trained teachers. He lamented that:
“Schools can no longer set targets for admission to conform to their
facilities due to corrupt practices. The government has the
responsibility of safeguarding the rights of its children to sound
education and should be vigilant over the ability of the teachers and
the standard of teaching.”
He also promised that
if elected, free education, free meals in schools, decent accommodation
and involvement of teachers in school-related decisions, will be
implemented. Buhari also promised to provide allowances to discharged
but unemployed Youth Corps members for 12 months while in the skills and
entrepreneurial development programmes. If the aforementioned promises
are to be implemented by the President-Elect, the quality of the would
be education minister as suggested by stakeholders must be holistic to
be able to drive the sector.
Speaking on the need
to get a round peg in a round hole, Professor Oyesoji Aremu, Department
of Guidance & Counselling, University of Ibadan, said: “Like any
venture, the philosophy behind governance is for the people to feel the
impact. The incoming administration of Gen. Buhari has a lot of
expectations the people need to met, within and outside the country.
The
Deputy Director Academics (Distance Learning Centre) U.I also pointed
out that one big area of expectation from Buhari’s administration in
education sector. He said: ‘’As the slogan of the party that is bringing
him to power depicts, people expect a significant change in education
at all levels adding, to drive the change, the General turned Democrat
needs to look for the right personality to handle the industry.’’
To
this end, he counselled that the Office of the Federal Ministry of
Education should be manned by a personality who is seasoned in
education, understands the theories of education, and who can drive the
theories to achieve results in the industry. Aremu who disclosed that
the would be minister should be proactive in the art and science of
education, added that the personality could either be a politician or a
professional as long the person possesses what is needed to achieve
results in the industry,’’ he stated.
On his part,
former Vice-Chancellor, University of Education, Ikere Ekiti, Professor
Samuel Bandele opined that while chosen minister of education, the APC
should look out for a professional educator with enviable track record.
His words: “ The in coming government should search for a professional
educator for the post of Minister of Education, preferably a professor,
who will be seen as very knowledgeable in the enterprise of education at
all levels.
It is good for the Nation to think of
a person with enviable track record, whether a Politician or not. “He
should not be a controversial political figure that unions can easily
place in perspectives and silence during union uprisings. He should
possess impeccable leadership traits to coordinate the complex nature of
Nigeria Higher Education policies and practices in a near flawless
manner.
‘’Nigeria yearns for a corrupt free
society and hence, the prospective minister should be properly
investigated to be a clean person in all its ramifications.” Adding
credence to the aforementioned, Anthony Kila, a professor of Strategy
and Development averred that to achieve anything meaningful in education
the new education minister and indeed the government as a whole, needs
to consider education as a crucial sector in their strategic development
plan for the nation.
Kila who is an international
director of studies at ECAPS in Cambridge, the European Center of
Advanced and Professional Studies said: ‘’The would be minister needs
have the courage and vision to see education system in the country as
being in a dire condition and in need of a state of emergency.’’
According to him, the minister can be from anywhere as long as he or she
can show a clear understanding of the job at hand, he should be
appointed.
He, however, warned that pegging the
minister to come from a geopolitical zone will be dangerous as it will
limit the possibility of getting the very best. Education, like health,
he noted, does not have any preferential geopolitical zone explaining
that a sick Nigerian simply needs cure regardless from whom it comes.
‘’A Nigerian pupil simply needs good education from childhood to
adulthood, who manages it does not matter, what matters is competence or
incompetence.” Kila said.
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