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2006: Reinventing Education by Ezekwesili(AllAfrica.com English Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan 04, 2007 (Vanguard/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --"The President gave me a marching order at the Presidential Forum on Education. If there was no problem in education, he said that he won't send me there," that is Mrs Obiageli Ezekwesili, Minister of Education, giving reason for her dogged determination to reinvent the country's ailing education system. To a large extent, the past year (2006) saw the education system in a state of flux that one cannot tell what will happen the next moment. The coming of Oby (as she wants to be fondly called) just after the mid-year, replacing another woman, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji who was dropped in a cabinet shake-up, made her the fifth Education Minister since return to civilian dispensation in 1999. She caught national attention as the Senior Assistant to President Obasanjo in charge of Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit in the Presidency. Having done well, ensuring that due process was followed in contracts and government transactions, earning the nickname, "Madam Due Process," Oby suddenly became Minister of Solid Minerals Development and given a mandate to reposition the country's mining sector for realisation of its full potentials as major revenue earner above petroleum. When seemed to be settling down at Solid Minerals Development, she was posted to the Education Ministry. The wife of a clergy man whose arrival at education was considered by many to be a fluke, was virtually untutored in education governance and management. But in few months, the gritty "Madam minister", like a hurricane, tore through the education sector, rolling out controversial reforms non-stop, confronting a bureaucracy resistant to change, resulting in a long-drawn trade dispute/strike action. At the end, Oby laughed last. There was relative industrial peace in education sector for most of 2006, notwithstanding the series of warning strikes by academic unions of universities and polytechnics over lingering, unresolved issues. These warning strikes by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) however did not snowball into full-blown strikes, because government has learned the art of defusing such tensions and pacifying the unions to sheathe their swords. The unending ASUU - Federal Government dispute over non implementation of negotiated agreements since 2001, seemed to wore down the union considerably. Its leadership headed by Dr. Sule Kano, avoided direct confrontation with the government, a departure from incessant strikes the pattern during the era of Dr. Dipo Fashina. So when Oby assumed office; there was a semblance of peace as she attempted dialogues with ASUU, which unfortunately, have not yielded results so far. The peace now existing could be likened to the peace in the grave yard. ASUU is threatening to go on stike and the Education Minister has expressed government's willingness for dialogue to resolve the issues which are now well known to Nigerians. President Obasanjo relaxed his combatant and antagonistic disposition to university lecturers in the past year, although ASUU was not seen at the Presidential Forum on Education sector hosted by him. A renegotiation committee on the 2001 agreement between Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities was inaugurated by Oby Ezekwesili. She said that government was renegotiating with ASUU to address the standard of education at the tertiary level. According to her: "The Federal Government team in the committee has been mandated to discuss all issues on the agenda with nothing but the best interest of the nation as the only intended outcome." Pointing out that government will transform the education sector, the Education Minister declared: "The on-going reforms in the education sector as it pertains to the tertiary level of education is directed at both reversing the standards and institutionalising best practices for excellence." This time around, she assured of government's sincerity and transparency in efforts to reach a consensus on issues of concern to academic unions such as ASUU. Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, Pro-Chancellor of University of Ibadan/Governing Council Chairman, doubles as both head of the government team and Chairman of the Renegotiation Committee. The polytechnics had their own problems which they wanted government to look into. Their complaints ranged from non-implementation of harmonised and enhanced salary structure for academic staff, establishing a national commission for polytechnic similar to the National Universities Commission (NUC) and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE). Bridging the artificial gaps between graduates of polytechnics and those of universities, expunging from our statues books, the obnoxious law which relegates polytechnic graduates behind their university counterparts at managerial level, and other discriminatory policies that create barriers to the progress of the polytechnic system. Other unions like the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU), All Nigerian Conference of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS), Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) made various demands and voiced their respective grievances demanding redress from the government. As 2007 begins, the decisions reached at the several education fora, conferences, seminar, workshops and meetings in 2006 can be manifested. One significant development was the education for all agenda, captured in the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme. It provides that, "at the end of nine years of continuous education, every child should acquire appropriate and relevant skills and values and be employable in order to contribute his/her quota to national development." The 6-3-3-4 was altered although its integrity retained. Now to be known as 9-3-4, that is 6 years of primary education along with 3 years of junior secondary education, making an uninterrupted 9 years of schooling. There is disarticulation of junior secondary school from senior secondary schools. Those who can move to senior secondary will spend 3 years, after which the last 4 years are for tertiary education. Emphasis will be on curriculum diversification which is still been fine tuned by the relevant authority to cover effectively and adequately, individual and community needs, including the rudiments of computer literacy. Cultism, examination malpractices, sale of mediocre handouts, sexual harassment, immoral conduct, overcrowding, all these cast a debilitating shadow over the country's tertiary education in 2006. Cultism took a huge toll on the lives of students across some university and polytechnic campuses. Many students were killed in clashes between rival cult groups in higher institutions. On the whole, most of the tertiary schools remained open throughout the year as the system recorded very minimal instances of closure and strikes. Some new private and state-owned universities came on board, expanding the system and opening opportunities for higher education. At the same time, a private university collapsed, a rare incident in contemporary education history, calling to question the way NUC grants licence for establishment of universities. Long serving Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Peter Okebukola went on retirement and was replaced by Professor Julius Okojie. Also, the tenure of JAMB Registrar, Professor Bello Salim expired after several years in office and an Acting Registrar in the person of Dr. Abubakar Saleh was appointed in October, 2006. Barely two months after, Saleh was removed dramatically which according Dr. Aboki Zhawa, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education was "because the performance level of the Management staff under his leadership as Acting Registrar was below expectation." Oby Ezekwesili then approved the appointment of Dr. Peter Odor, a Director in JAMB as replacement pending when a substantive Registrar will be appointed. He pledged to continue with the reforms initiated by his predecessors, saying the reforms were meant to reposition JAMB for greater efficiency. Odor pointed to JAMB as, "a system made up of many components, which when added together form a unique entity saddled with the responsibility of conducting examinations and admissions." The NUC descended on institutions particularly colleges of education with illegal affiliations with universities for the purpose of offering degrees, closing them. Also Lagos state University (LASU) was ordered to close down its numerous study centres and schools outside the main Ojo campus offering degree programmes. The Federal Government turned Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Effurun, Delta state, into University of Petroleum Technology. NUC accreditation knocked off some courses from universities because they lacked the facilities, equipment and teaching personnel to run such programmes. At the same time, a lot of higher institutions had their courses/programmes either fully or partially accredited after upgrading their facilities and meeting the minimum academic standards and requirements. Students welfare was still a far cry as many of them lived in filthy, congested hostels paying high rents, poor feeding, lack of water, poor power supply and lack of medical care. Worse still, the grant of scholarships seemed to have reduced drastically in 2006. The post-UME , in its second year, is troubled by some procedural problems which the education minister promised to review in this new year. The post-UME screening is being turned into "a second JAMB", which Oby vowed won't happen. As the year was drawing to an end, she embarked on some of the most profound 2006: Reinventing education by EzekwesiliConsolidation of the tertiary level opened up 500,000 admission spaces for university education, as federal polytechnics and colleges of education are to become proximate and contagious campuses of universities. Consequently, Yaba College of Technology and Kaduna Polytechnic were converted into City universities. A committee on the consolidation of tertiary institutions in Nigeria was set up to implement this decision. Convergence of the 21 parastatals in the Ministry of Education into six groups, reactivation and strengthening of the federal inspectorate/inspection of all secondary schools in the country which have begun, tracking down of products of the education system at all levels to ascertain their status and what they are doing presently, introduction of tertiary innovative enterprise initiatives for talented skills to blossom, retraining of teachers, housing for all teachers, partnering with EFCC to check examination malpractice with offenders to be tried under the miscellaneous offences act, are some of the reforms. But by far, the most outstanding and stupendous that caused the rage by teachers and ministry workers was the privatisation of the 102 Federal Government Colleges, otherwise called unity schools. Through a unique arrangement, the schools will be removed from government bureaucratic management and run by Public, Private Partnership (PPP) system. It is still not clear what the PPP modalities are. Oby bemoaned the high failure rate of unity schools' students in WAEC, falling standard of teaching, dilapidated facilities, decay and rot of infrastructure, corrupt admission process which have characterised these colleges in recent years. "What we are saying is let's take unity schools out of control of bureaucracy, set up a board to put things right and not to make profits." Fearing loss of jobs, insecurity, uncertain future and probable loss of entitlements, retiring benefits, pension, etc, teachers and workers of Federal Ministry of Education declared a trade dispute over PPP and went on strike for nearly two months. They said the federal government has not explained what it means by private-public partnership as an option in the running of the unity schools. The teachers, workers and other stakeholders viewed the PPP arrangement as "a calculated attempt to sell the schools through the back door because the government does not intend to partner with people or organisations that will not receive salaries or make profit from their investments." After series of meetings between the workers and the management of the Education Ministry brokered by the Ministry of Labour, the strike was called off and the teachers returned to work. Details of the agreement not yet clear, but government may go ahead with PPP. Another important development was the directive by the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) that only teachers who pass Information Communication Technology (ICT) test will be registered henceforth. ICT is compulsory from primary school and is contained in the curriculum being prepared by Nigerian Education Research and Development Council. Every classroom to have ICT, computer connected into the internet electronic classroom. Students register for JAMB, WAEC, NECO on-line. One million Laptop project initiated for school children did not materialise at close of 2006. Major components of the education reform agenda included: Re-ordering the education sector towards attaining the country's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Education for All. Matching quality instruction with relevant curriculum. Harmonisation and co-ordination between federal, state and local governments in many areas, especially funding. Addressing child/pupil/student hunger, nutrition and health problems through Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme. Identifying children with special needs -- blind, deaf, dumb, physically handicapped, etc. Upgrading all Grade 2 teachers to NCE level. Eliminating gender disparity through enhanced Girls Education Project. Recognising the role of Mathematics by getting more teachers enrolled in the National Mathematical Centre (NMC) for the Mathematics Improvement Programme. Strengthening Entrepreneurship Studies in tertiary institutions for graduates to be self-employed and job creators rather than job seekers. Introduction of Operation Reach All Schools (ORAS) meant to sustain regular inspection and supervision of schools across the country. Cutting down over-bloated workforce of Federal Ministry of Education, perceived to have lost its original mission. Returning the ministry back to focus mainly on policy formulation, innovation, articulation, implementation, effective regulatory work and the vehicle for delivering sound, quality education policies. Boosting science and technological education by converting colleges of technology/polytechnics into degree awarding institutions. A new head of National Office of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) was appointed after the death of the previous head. Mr Godwin O. Uzoigwe, until his appointment was Senior Deputy Registrar/Head of Test Administration Division of the council in Nigeria. He succeeded the late Dr. Samuel Oluranti Adeyegbe who died on June 3, 2006. WAEC workers staged a peaceful protest against moves to merge WAEC, NECO, JAMB, NBTE as a group of examination bodies, which was later denied by the Ministry of Education. All segments of education felt the reform agenda as it was not going to be business as usual anymore. Oby, in an interview, talked about President Obasanjo's passion for education, who has now become Nigeria's first sitting President to enrol as a student of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National Open University, Abuja, 2006/2007 session. Said the Education Minister: "I always tease him on the fact that if somebody gave him a piece of land and the other person gave him a set of books, he will jump quickly at the person with the set of books because he has this ability for learning and knowledge." This has been aptly illustrated when President Obasanjo matriculated last November and went back to school, at about 70 years of age. He told the Presidential Forum on Education sector: "I know the value of education. I got educated by accident. If I was not educated, I don't know where I will be." The forum was an interactive session attended by stakeholders who made presentations on repositioning our education system. It was while returning home from Abuja after deliberations that the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Maccido, Sokoto State Education Commissioner, the deputy governor, and several others got killed in plane crash. As 2007 progresses, these reforms will begin to take shape while legislations have to be enacted to make them functional. Copyright 2007 Vanguard. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |