Education stakeholders set agenda for incoming administration

By Oluwakemi Oladipo

Some education stakeholders in Lagos have called on the incoming administration in the country to revamp and ensure institutions are properly protected.

They said that this was necessary to ensure that learners experience uninterrupted academic sessions at all levels in the country.

They made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday, Lagos.

Mr Yomi Otubela, National President, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), said there was an urgent need for the Federal Government to rejig critical sectors of the economy, starting with education.

Otubela said that the new administration must also ensure it hit the ground running, by creating an improved agenda to rescue education from total collapse.

“There is an immediate need to increase the current budgetary allocation to education. This will go a long way in increasing investment in the critical aspects of education.

“However, It is glaring that governments alone cannot shoulder the responsibility of providing adequate quality education, therefore public-private partnerships will be needed for effective synergy to reposition education.

“Private investors in education should be encouraged through friendly policies to increase the level of private investments in the education sector.

“Teacher education and training should also be prioritised to produce the required manpower to reposition the education sector to its desired state,” he said.

According to him, the President Buhari-led administration, in its two terms, did not attain up to 15 per cent of the annual budget allocation for education, which is seen as a critical unit of the economy.

“It did not also make substantial investments in the training of teachers at all levels of the system.

“In Nigeria today, primary education has continued to flounder much as secondary education, with less infrastructure development and teaching facilities provided.

“The decay in basic infrastructure and teaching facilities and inaccessibility to both state-owned primary and secondary schools across, had paved the way for the proliferation of private schools in the country.

“Sadly, the majority of these privately owned schools are also operating below the minimum standard approved for operation, and the few that have met the approved standard charge arbitrarily, without any form of regulation.

“They lay claim to the increasing cost of running schools as their major reason for the arbitrary increase in their school fees,” Otubela said.

Also speaking, Prof. Bidemi Lafiji-Okunneye,Vice -Chancellor of Lagos State University of Education (LASUED),Ijanikin and Epe campuses, expressed optimism that the incoming administration would perform better in the area of education.

According to her, there is the hope that the incoming administration would improve on the challenges facing the sector holistically.

She was optimistic there would be an upgrade in teaching and learning across all the various tiers of education at all levels.

“Let me state that the Lagos State government has fared very well in terms of education.

“The establishment of the two new universities is an achievement and the state government has been supporting the stability of the universities.

“As we transmuted from college of education to university, Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu gave a mandate that no one should lose any job, which we all assured.

” Those who were also due for promotion at the college level, we followed the mandate by implementing the promotion for 2022,” she said.

Also speaking, Mr Sunday Fowowe, National President, Association of Nursery and Primary Education Instructors in Nigeria (ANPEIN), said that one of the current administration’s major achievements was the establishment of secondary education commission.

Fowowe stated that the Federal Government also increased fund to higher institutions’ research, through TETFUND, established new universities, Federal Colleges of Education and introduced  65 years retirement age for willing teachers.

“The shortcomings in education sector for the past eight years are; persistent strikes by ASUU that up till now has not been resolved, nonchallant attitude toward higher education and non – expert as Minister of Education

“The incoming government should ensure that provision for scholarship is increased and strengthened.

“We also want establishment of early childhood education commission. This is imperative to allow quality and 100 per cent concentration in the foundation, to be well structured and receive attention,” he said.

(NAN)