‘Incisive strategies pivotal to addressing education shortfall’

The strategic role a solid education sector plays in the overall development of the economy of any nation cannot be over emphased. It is with this realisation in mind that industry experts have again reiterated the need for government and its agencies to address the many challenges facing this key sector if she hopes to have a productive population.

While it is very glaring in today’s ever competitive world that the seriousness or otherwise that a country place on the various levels of education it overseas in no small way indicates its quest to contribute to development of a productive work force in the 21st century.

It is for this reason that education experts have called for new strategises to be put in place by the Nigerian government towards revamping the educational institutions in the country.

Analysts observe that management at the various levels of education needs to appreciate the impact of a functional and innovative academic system to national development.

A cross section of experts while baring their thoughts on fixing the nation’s educational system, said that across all levels of education there should be constant review and development of curriculum to ensure that they are relevant to development of enlightened individuals and productive nation.

Isaac Adeyemi, vice chancellor, Bells University of Science and Technology Ota noted that as a developing country, there is need to strategically decide on the knowledge, skills and competencies the country requires to actualise all the visions about greatness it so desires.

According to him, “Government should have a very strong regulatory arm to monitor the quality of education at the various levels.” 

Adeyemi while highlighting the importance of funding to the overall growth and development of a vital sector like education in the country, said funding should be expanded, stressing that the federal and state governments should monitor to ensure that the budgetary allocation voted for education are actually spent on the sector. He encouraged those in government to seek ways to fix their dwindling revenues, adding that government needs to find ways to engage the private sector in education funding.

On his part, Ibidapo Obe observe that there is the need to establish a platform for educators to build new and innovative directions for educational practice by focusing on partnerships in educating the Nigerian child, setting the pace for change in methodology, transforming the nation’s schools and equipping the schools to sustain change.

In his estimation, to drive up enrolment, it is important that government creates awareness of the benefits of education and give bite to the compulsory free education policy.

He further reiterated the importance of government fashioning out a carrot and stick approach to get parents to actually send their children to school.

In his words, “We need to introduce incentives that would attract the best hands from other countries to teach in our educational institutions. This is an area we need to grapple with and would involve having the right incentives in place to attract and keep the right people in teaching. We need to ensure that the teacher’s rewards are right here on earth and not in heaven.

“We need to bring about transformation, restore education in Nigeria to its former glory and raise the bar beyond what it used to be so that it can be up to what we have globally,” he said.

KELECHI EWUZIE