He listed the effects of decades of neglect suffered by the sector as including an estimated 13.2 million children out of school, high illiteracy level, infrastructural deficit and decay as well as unqualified teachers and inadequate instructional materials.
President Buhari was speaking at the Old Banquet Hall of the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja at a special retreat of the Federal Executive Council themed: “Education in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects.”
According to him, it is no longer a secret that the quality of education in Nigeria requires greater attention and improvement, and that the fact that the nation 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.
The president declared that Nigeria must get her education sector right, noting that the nation cannot progress beyond the level and standard of its education.
He maintained that no nation can achieve economic, social, political and cultural prosperity without a sound and functional education system, emphasising that: “We must get it right in this country. To get it right means setting our education sector on the right path.”
The president said Nigerians should also “bear in mind that the security and stability of the country hinges, to a large extent, on its ability to provide functional education to its citizens.”
He said his administration was determined to turn around the sector for the better, stating that “We are already making appreciable progress in this respect.”
He said while there were numerous other competing demands and responsibilities from different sectors of the economy, his government was committed to confronting and tackling the challenges in the education sector. “This will be part of our deliberate policy of revitalizing education provisioning and capacity building.”
The president said: “Today, it is those who acquire the most qualitative education, equipped with requisite skills and training, and empowered with practical knowhow that are leading the rest. We cannot afford to continue lagging behind. Education is our launch-pad to a more successful, more productive and more prosperous future.
“One of the primary roles of education is to build and sustain individual and society’s development. It renews and improves the economic, social, political and cultural aspects of any nation. Education upgrades the living standard of citizens and enables people to become better and more productive citizens. It is a human right that creates a safe, healthy and prosperous society. It changes the visions and perspectives of individuals, enhances critical decisions and improves democracy. Indeed education is paramount and necessary requirement for all-round development.
“Nigeria’s participation in all relevant international education fora together with our 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. These efforts are justifiable only to the extent that schooling is effective in promoting the realization of national objectives, attaining the Sustainable Development Goals and Education For All by 2030.These targets are, happily, in harmony with the manifesto and the CHANGE agenda of our Party, the All Progressive Congress. It is also in agreement with my campaign promises during the 2015 elections exercise and in pursuit of the yearnings and aspirations of the generality of Nigerian citizens.”
The president said the summit must sharpen government’s strategies for addressing the challenges of basic and secondary education, teacher training and professional development as well as technical and vocational education.
He said the summit must also work to enhance quality in, and access to, higher education and other challenges in the sector that could debar Nigeria from attaining the SDGs and be among the top 20 economies in the world.
He said he expected that after the summit, the government would come up with feasible, implementable and far-reaching action plans for the ministerial strategic plan that would make education play the pivotal role as the engine that drives national prosperity and development.
In a reference to the ongoing primary school reforms in Kaduna State, President Buhari described a situation where those engaged for teaching could not pass their own examinations as very serious and tragic.
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-rufai had in October announced plans to sack about 22,000 primary school teachers who failed a competency test.
Buhari stated: “To digress a little bit so that you know that I meant what I read, having been an orphan, I still feel that whatever I did in life so far was built by boarding schools. For nine years, I was in boarding school, three in primary and six in secondary school.
“In those days, teachers treat their students or children like their own children. If you did well, they would tell you (that) you did well; if you didn’t do well, they never spared the rod. When I finished my secondary school, I didn’t work for a day, I refused to work for a day, I left home, I refused to work in the local government, and then I joined the army. And the army of that time, we went through all we went through upto the civil war.
“And then, I listened to one of the Nigerians I respect, he said after his training here in Nigeria and the United States, he went to his alma mater, his primary school, to see what he could contribute. I won’t mention his name, but when he went, he couldn’t differentiate between the students, the children and the teachers.
“And what el-rufai is trying to do now is exactly what that man told me about 10 years ago. It is a very very serious situation when teachers cannot pass their exams that they are supposed to teach the children to pass. It is a very tragic situation we are in and this our gathering together, to me, is one of the most important in this administration.”
Earlier, Education Minister Adamu Adamu suggested ways of eliminating mediocrity in the sector, saying “If we give regulatory agencies the teeth to bite and do their work, mediocre teachers will soon disappear from our classrooms. If we insist on professionalism with appropriate deadlines set for those who teach, the situation will improve phenomenally.”
He said Nigeria’s education system would improve if automatic scholarship is offered to students who take education as well as automatic employment and preferential compensation package to those who take to teaching as a profession.
The minister stressed the need to harmonize the learning and teaching in tertiary institutions as well as redefine national goals periodically
Adamu, who urged improved funding for the sector, Said it would take Buhari’s administration N1trillion annually for the next four years to fulfill its 13 campaign promises on education.
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Source: Daily Trust
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