Nigeria loses foreign exchange and human capital in the process of her citizens attending schools in other countries, Akwa Ibom Deputy Governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, said.
Speaking at the opening of a three-day Workshop for Southern Zone Critique of the Zero Draft Minimum Standards Document for Senior Secondary Education in Nigeria held in Uyo on Wednesday, Eyakenyi attributed the losses to poor management of the country’s education system.
‘‘Our children are now schooling in nearby African countries where education is better managed while some travel to far away Europe, America and Asia in search of globally acceptable quality of education. We lose foreign exchange and human capital in the process,’’ she lamented.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria on the sectoral utilization of foreign exchange showed that foreign education gulped about $1.01 billion in 2022.
Eyakenyi, therefore, advocated measures to be put in place for the regulation of education sector in the country such as banking and aviation, among others to enhance quality of products.
‘‘If we want to fix Nigeria, we must revisit the provision of standard infrastructural facilities in the secondary schools, and the calibre of teachers trained to impart knowledge to their students and curriculum adopted for the school system,’’ she stated.
According to her, “Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
‘‘The foregoing statement credited to William Foster, a prominent 20th century labour organiser and communist politician summarizes the objective of this important workshop. Here, we are not only talking about quality but quality in education, particularly senior secondary education.
‘‘Education is the heart of our socio-economic development. We can’t grow beyond the quality of our school system. The giant strides recorded by developed nations of the World are always traceable to their school system.
‘‘If we sincerely want to fix Nigeria, we must re-visit our school system with a view to establishing certain irreducible minimum standards in the quality of personnel, infrastructures and curriculum.’’
She recalled that before she joined politics, ‘‘I was a secondary school teacher for many years and I am a teacher by training. So, I understand the depth of the rot in our school system, occasioned by a huge manpower deficit, dearth of critical infrastructures, outdated curricular, undue mercantilism, lack of commitment, etc.’’
The Deputy Governor decried ‘‘At the moment, the level of mushrooming in our school system is unacceptable. Anyone can just wake up and establish a school and runs it as he likes without questions. Many secondary schools in the country are mere special examination centres where candidates are aided to undeservedly pass the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations.
‘‘In the end, these half baked and untrained folks are dumped in our higher institutions, which in turn dump them in the society with dire consequences. Considering its importance, why can’t our education sector be as rigorously regulated as the banking, aviation and other sectors?’
Eyakenyi described senior secondary school as a critical segment of the education chain, noting ‘‘Mistakes made at the lower levels can be remedied here. But children who are mismanaged at this critical level may have to live with the consequences, the rest of their lives.’’
She, however, commended the Executive Secretary, Dr. Iyela Ajayi and the leadership of the National Senior Secondary Education Commission for taking steps to regulate the sector and for this well-conceived initiative of creating a platform for stakeholders to interface and critique the document which will help to achieve this, nationwide, saying ‘‘This way, Nigerians will easily buy in and take ownership of the document.’’
On the new regulatory framework, the Deputy Governor pointed out that ‘‘it will benefit the people in Akwa Ibom State as His Excellency, Pastor Umo Eno has prioritized quality and skills – driven education in the ARISE Agenda.
‘‘He expects our schools to churn out well trained, properly groomed and skillful individuals who can be self-reliant. The outcome of this Workshop will definitely boost this aspiration.’’
Eyakenyi announced that state government has approved employment of 1,000 teachers for secondary schools and 1,000 teachers for primary school system.
She, therefore, called on participants at the workshop to emphasize the need to professionalise teaching, adopt measures for continuous professional training of teachers, set minimum standards for school infrastructures and environment, update our curriculum, define procedures for school licensing, among others.
In his speech, Dr. Iyela Ajayi, the Executive Secretary of National Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) thanked the Governor Umo Eno and the deputy governor for facilitating the hosting of the workshop in the state.
Dr. Ajayi said the gathering was necessitated by the need to critique the draft National Minimum Standards of Senior Secondary Education in Nigeria, saying ‘‘This exercise is for critical stakeholders in the Southern zone.’’
He recalled that a similar workshop was held in Bauchi covering the Northern Zone of the country, stating that ‘‘When approved and implemented, the minimum standards would ser bench marks for all aspects of senior secondary education in Nigeria.’’
The Executive Secretary noted that after the exercise before the document is approved, released and implemented, there would be harmonization of views on the minimum standards for the Northern and Southern zones.
In her remarks, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Education, said the workshop was aimed at setting standard for nationwide application that includes advocacy, creation of standard of education policy and enhanced curriculum through improvement of contents.
‘‘I believe after three days of diligent engagement in this workshop, positive outcomes will be seen in equitable distribution of amenities and guaranteed quality assistance across the country,’’ Etiebet said.
The Commissioner assured of the state government’s readiness to pay the five per cent counterpart funding as demanded by National Secondary Education Commission to assess the funds for use in the development of schools.
In his speech, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdul-karim, the Director of Quality Assurance of National Secondary Education Commission, said Akwa Ibom was playing host to 17 states in the Southern zone.
Abdul-karim regretted that lack of standards in the secondary schools was responsible for poor performance of the people coming out from the tertiary institutions in the larger society.
Earlier, Professor Usman Kabir Kabo, a resource person had stressed the need for education policy makers to entrench and maintain standards of education.
Similarly, Dr. Mohammed-Yusau, Director of Polytechnics in the Federal Ministry of Education, had listed challenges facing secondary education in the country to include infrastructure deficiency, poor morality of teachers, irrelevant curriculum and examination malpractice, calling for infrastructure investment, sound morality among teachers, good curriculum and high examination performance by students, among others.
