Are we confused?
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- Category: Philosofaith
- Written by M. U. Ndagi
- Hits: 3468
It was indeed flabbergasting when President Goodluck Jonathan announced during a recent visit to Imo State that his administration plans to change the nation’s educational policy, stating that a bill to that effect would soon be sent to the National Assembly. T
his declaration came barely a month after he blamed the nation’s educational woes on the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system. Mr. President who became critical of the current policy at a Presidential Summit on Education also asked a former Minister of Education, Professor Babs Fafunwa (now late), to apologize to Nigerian children. Few days after Mr. President’s declaration in Imo State, the Honourable Minister of State for Education buttressed President Jonathan’s pronouncement by announcing that a proposal to change the existing educational structure from 6-3-3-4 (or its modified version: 9-3-4) to 6-5-4 is underway; stressing that the new structure would come into force at the beginning of the next academic session.We find it ridiculous that President Jonathan and the Minister of State for Education both failed to give Nigerians the reasons for the change in policy. In order to justify the imperatives (if any) for the change, it is important for advocates of the change to educate stakeholders and indeed Nigerians about the problem with the current 6-3-3-4 policy. Unless this is done, President Jonathan’s prejudice against the 6-3-3-4 system could only be an extension of the persistent summersault which the country’s educational system has suffered over the years. While lamenting during a recent press interview about incessant policy inconsistencies in Nigeria’s educational system, the Honourable Minister of Education, Professor Rukayyatu Rufa’i noted that she had to, at a time during her tenure as Commissioner for Education in Jigawa state, ignore the irregular policy statements from the National Council on Education (NCE); and thus operated according to approved guidelines for the implementation of the existing National Policy on Education (NPE).
Several educationists added their voice to the assertion by late Professor Aliu Babs Fafunwa in his response, shortly before he passed on, to President’s Jonathan’s alleged failure of the 6-3-3-4 system that the problem with the Nigerian educational system is not with the policy but a matter that rests squarely on implementation.
The 1969 Curriculum Conference prepared the intellectual ground for the June 1973 National Seminar on “A National Policy on Education” organized by the then Federal Commissioner for Education, Chief A. Y. Eke under the chairmanship of Chief S. O. Adebo. This seminar did not only adopt the five national objectives enunciated under the country’s National Development Plan (1970-1974) but also improved and adopted recommendation no. 59 of the 1969 National Curriculum Conference which proposed a 6-3-3-4 system of education for Nigeria.
General Yakubu Gowon announced late in 1974 that a Universal Primary Education (UPE) of six-year primary education would be launched in September 1976. The UPE was formally launched on September 6, 1976 by the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, which event officially marked the adoption of the 6-3-3-4 system of education for the country. In 1977, eight years after the 1969 Conference, four years after the 1973 Seminar, two and half years after Gowon’s announcement, and one year after Obasanjo’s launching of the 6-3-3-4 system, the Federal Government set up a seven-man “Implementation Committee for the National Policy on Education” headed by the late Professor S. Onabamiro. The 6-3-3-4 educational policy revised in 1981 (2nd edition), 1985 (3rd edition) and 2004 (4th and current edition), was however re-launched by General Obasanjo on September 30, 1999 under a new concept: the “Universal Basic Education (UBE)”, which makes education at the basic level free and compulsory. These revisions in any case have never altered the structure of the system.
Policy inconsistencies which in the recent past include the abolition of the National Common Entrance Examination in (NCEE) 2004 and its re-introduction in 2010 is a theory that suggests a state of confusion with our leaders. Another premise that prompts us to ask whether those managing the affairs of education in this country tend to be confused is the accusing finger that is repeatedly pointed at the 6-3-3-4 educational policy as responsible for the collapse of the system. When mass failure with a success rate as low as 2% is recorded in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE), the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) are blamed for the inadequacies of government, schools and students.
Government has always refused to find any faults with her failure to provide necessary equipments and materials that will facilitate effective teaching and learning in schools. It is in the same wise of negligence that government has always ignored her failure in the implementation of several aspects of the National Policy on Education; thereby blaming the woes of the sector on the system. President Jonathan would describe the 6-3-3-4 structure as a failure and overlook how government has completely ditched the inspectorate arm of education designed to ensure quality assurance and control.
A review of some aspects of the policy at certain periods of implementation may be right and proper, but a complete change of the structure would only ridicule the already neglected system. A situation where many sections of the existing policy are not implemented does not justify a change in structure. Failures arising from government’s inability to review curriculum of basic and secondary schools every five years as stipulated by the blue-print for the implementation of the 6-3-3-4 system should not, for instance, be blamed on the system. Government’s lack of political will is similarly illustrated in decayed infrastructure, obsolete library facilities, and ill-equipped laboratories. Basic education is only seen to be compulsory but certainly not free as claimed by government.
In any case, our leaders must be reminded that education remains the only investment a nation could make to achieve the desired accelerated development of our economic, political, sociological and human resources. May Allah (SWT) guide our leaders and those charged with the responsibility of managing the education sector to realize that there are more problems in government’s commitment to implementation than with the 6-3-3-4 educational structure, amin.
Articles
Are we confused?
Category: Philosofaith Written by M. U. Ndagi Hits: 3468
It was indeed flabbergasting when President Goodluck Jonathan announced during a recent visit to Imo State that his administration plans to change the nation’s educational policy, stating that a bill to that effect would soon be sent to the National Assembly. T
his declaration came barely a month after he blamed the nation’s educational woes on the failure of the 6-3-3-4 system. Mr. President who became critical of the current policy at a Presidential Summit on Education also asked a former Minister of Education, Professor Babs Fafunwa (now late), to apologize to Nigerian children. Few days after Mr. President’s declaration in Imo State, the Honourable Minister of State for Education buttressed President Jonathan’s pronouncement by announcing that a proposal to change the existing educational structure from 6-3-3-4 (or its modified version: 9-3-4) to 6-5-4 is underway; stressing that the new structure would come into force at the beginning of the next academic session.We find it ridiculous that President Jonathan and the Minister of State for Education both failed to give Nigerians the reasons for the change in policy. In order to justify the imperatives (if any) for the change, it is important for advocates of the change to educate stakeholders and indeed Nigerians about the problem with the current 6-3-3-4 policy. Unless this is done, President Jonathan’s prejudice against the 6-3-3-4 system could only be an extension of the persistent summersault which the country’s educational system has suffered over the years. While lamenting during a recent press interview about incessant policy inconsistencies in Nigeria’s educational system, the Honourable Minister of Education, Professor Rukayyatu Rufa’i noted that she had to, at a time during her tenure as Commissioner for Education in Jigawa state, ignore the irregular policy statements from the National Council on Education (NCE); and thus operated according to approved guidelines for the implementation of the existing National Policy on Education (NPE).
Several educationists added their voice to the assertion by late Professor Aliu Babs Fafunwa in his response, shortly before he passed on, to President’s Jonathan’s alleged failure of the 6-3-3-4 system that the problem with the Nigerian educational system is not with the policy but a matter that rests squarely on implementation.
The 1969 Curriculum Conference prepared the intellectual ground for the June 1973 National Seminar on “A National Policy on Education” organized by the then Federal Commissioner for Education, Chief A. Y. Eke under the chairmanship of Chief S. O. Adebo. This seminar did not only adopt the five national objectives enunciated under the country’s National Development Plan (1970-1974) but also improved and adopted recommendation no. 59 of the 1969 National Curriculum Conference which proposed a 6-3-3-4 system of education for Nigeria.
General Yakubu Gowon announced late in 1974 that a Universal Primary Education (UPE) of six-year primary education would be launched in September 1976. The UPE was formally launched on September 6, 1976 by the then Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, which event officially marked the adoption of the 6-3-3-4 system of education for the country. In 1977, eight years after the 1969 Conference, four years after the 1973 Seminar, two and half years after Gowon’s announcement, and one year after Obasanjo’s launching of the 6-3-3-4 system, the Federal Government set up a seven-man “Implementation Committee for the National Policy on Education” headed by the late Professor S. Onabamiro. The 6-3-3-4 educational policy revised in 1981 (2nd edition), 1985 (3rd edition) and 2004 (4th and current edition), was however re-launched by General Obasanjo on September 30, 1999 under a new concept: the “Universal Basic Education (UBE)”, which makes education at the basic level free and compulsory. These revisions in any case have never altered the structure of the system.
Policy inconsistencies which in the recent past include the abolition of the National Common Entrance Examination in (NCEE) 2004 and its re-introduction in 2010 is a theory that suggests a state of confusion with our leaders. Another premise that prompts us to ask whether those managing the affairs of education in this country tend to be confused is the accusing finger that is repeatedly pointed at the 6-3-3-4 educational policy as responsible for the collapse of the system. When mass failure with a success rate as low as 2% is recorded in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE), the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) are blamed for the inadequacies of government, schools and students.
Government has always refused to find any faults with her failure to provide necessary equipments and materials that will facilitate effective teaching and learning in schools. It is in the same wise of negligence that government has always ignored her failure in the implementation of several aspects of the National Policy on Education; thereby blaming the woes of the sector on the system. President Jonathan would describe the 6-3-3-4 structure as a failure and overlook how government has completely ditched the inspectorate arm of education designed to ensure quality assurance and control.
A review of some aspects of the policy at certain periods of implementation may be right and proper, but a complete change of the structure would only ridicule the already neglected system. A situation where many sections of the existing policy are not implemented does not justify a change in structure. Failures arising from government’s inability to review curriculum of basic and secondary schools every five years as stipulated by the blue-print for the implementation of the 6-3-3-4 system should not, for instance, be blamed on the system. Government’s lack of political will is similarly illustrated in decayed infrastructure, obsolete library facilities, and ill-equipped laboratories. Basic education is only seen to be compulsory but certainly not free as claimed by government.
In any case, our leaders must be reminded that education remains the only investment a nation could make to achieve the desired accelerated development of our economic, political, sociological and human resources. May Allah (SWT) guide our leaders and those charged with the responsibility of managing the education sector to realize that there are more problems in government’s commitment to implementation than with the 6-3-3-4 educational structure, amin.