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President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday
asked Babatunde Fafunwa, former minister of education, to apologise to
Nigerians over the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system of education.

Speaking during an interactive session
at the opening of the Presidential Stakeholder’s Summit, at the
Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, he said the system has failed to provide the
solutions to the Nigerian educational system.

From Mr. Jonathan’s position, there are
strong indications that the Presidential Summit may recommend reverting
the educational system in the country to what it used to be.

Self reliant youth

The 6-3-3-4 system of education came
into being in 1983 with the primary focus of meeting the educational
needs of its citizenry and equipping the youth with skills that will
make them self reliant.

Twenty-five years after, a new
educational system called the Universal Basic Education (UBE), otherwise
known as the 9-3-4, has been re-introduced, whose curriculum is
expected to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2020.

Florence Fabian, a participant at the
event, said the problems associated with education are not only peculiar
to education alone, but a general problem that affects the Nigerian
society, which can only be solved with good leadership.

She rhetorically asked if the president
was prepared to provide the required leadership that will transform the
system, since this was the solution the educational system needed.

Contributing to the debate, Ovie
Emmanuel Sideso Abe, corroborated Ms. Fabian’s view and urged President
Jonathan to do something different in moving education out of the
doldrums.

A traditional ruler, who spoke on the
need to “de-politicise education so that proper quality education is
handed down to Nigerians,” also dwelt on the need for comprehensive data
collection and quality access and equity in education, saying that this
may go a long way in improving Nigeria’s education system.

He called for a joint funding of
education and streamlined quality of education, suggesting that this was
one of the ways of repositioning education in Nigeria.

Faruk Lawan, chairman, house committee
on education, also supported joint funding, and went ahead to advocate
parental contributions, lamenting that the value of education and the
curriculum that is taught in higher institutions have become irrelevant
to the overall needs of the country.

The lawmaker discussed the issue of corruption in the education sector and called for accountability in the system.

Julius Okojie, the executive secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC), spoke on the low quality of
entrance into universities, and the need for strict regulations.

Mr. Okojie said morality on the part of
higher education administrators is very important, stating that without
“morality there can’t be standard in the system.”

He further spoke on the quality of
lectures in the different institutions, and noted that “no system in the
world can develop when those doing the teaching are not qualified.”

Pitfalls of education

Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB executive secretary,
spoke on the factors militating against education in Nigeria,
especially the issue of space availability, discrimination in course
choices, and the quality of teachers, stating that “if these issues
aren’t resolved, education cannot move forward.”

He also spoke on the inconsistent
academic calendars and the years of graduation, and said “government
must do something to regularise it.”

Mr. Ojerinde further lamented the level
of examination malpractices in the education system and noted that
adequate punishment must be meted to culprits. He further attributed the
mass failure in the school system to lack of adequate teaching and
teaching infrastructure, adding that most teachers do not cover the
syllabus.

“It is difficult to curtail exam
malpractices when they can giraffe in open halls. If exams are well
conducted, we will get the best results,” he said.

He added that public exams bodies, like
WASEC and NECO, which are the gate keepers, would have the best results
if the right things are done.

Addison Wokocha, registrar, Teachers
Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), blamed teachers at all the tiers
of education, as been responsible for the poor education foundation in
the country.

He lamented that state governments do
not employ qualified teachers to teach in the respective state schools
and noted that in most cases, the state governments resort to deploying
members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to teach in state
schools, even when they are not qualified to teach.

The TRCN scribe further said they have
taken the decision to stop the deployment of unqualified teachers to
teach in any Nigerian school.