The Federal Government has challenged the National
Economic Summit Group (NESG), to review the policy foundation of Nigeria’s
education sector developed in 1969 to meet current realities.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan gave this charge
at the opening ceremony of the 20th Nigeria Economic Summit, with the theme
“Transforming Education through Partnership for Global Competitiveness,” which
held on Tuesday in Abuja.
The President, who spoke through, Vice President
Arc Mohammed Namadi Sambo, said “more than forty years after, this policy
foundation is ripe for review, to determine its relevance and fine tune its
adaptability to national objectives, in this 21st Century.”
“It is my hope that this Summit will take up this
challenge; by applying itself rigorously to the design of an ideal
education system that will satisfy our national needs and aspirations.”
President Jonathan, stressed that his
administration holds education in high premium, emphasising that education was
key to accelerating national transformation and development, saying “education
has changed the destiny of nations, big and small and we are determined to
change our story for the very best”.
Accordingly, he said the government had identified
access, quality and equity as the main strategic goals of Nigerian education,
stressing that government had introduced several initiatives to achieve these
goals, such as girl and boy-child education, the Almajiri System, teacher
training and retraining, increased funding and other far reaching policy
reforms at all levels of the education system.
President Jonathan, called for more partnership
between the three tiers of government, the private sector and international
development partners in designing credible sectoral accountability frameworks
that will impact positively on the sector. “There is an urgent need to develop
human capital, by investing and improving the skills of our people to
facilitate the actualisation of our national objectives,” he stated.
The President urged stakeholders in the education
sector to come up with practical solutions to surmount challenges of acquiring
accurate statistics, especially at the basic and secondary levels particularly
on school enrolment and other education indices. He said “It is necessary that
we get the numbers right to aid successful planning and decision-making.”
In his remarks the Supervising Minister of
Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike stated that the Transformation Agenda of the
President Jonathan administration, places premium on education as an instrument
par excellence for human capital development and socio-economic emancipation,
adding that to this end the Federal Ministry of Education had developed a Road
Map aimed at repositioning the sector.
He noted that the Road Map addresses issues
relating to access and equity, such as low enrolment, retention, and
transition, as well as low carrying capacity of tertiary education
institutions.
High point of the event was a plenary session on
Presidential Policy Dialogue, with Vice President Sambo standing in for
President Jonathan, with such other panellists like, Amb. Maryam Katagum,
Professor PAI Obanya, Dr. Elizabeth King; Mrs. Maryam Lemu, Prof Jibrila Amin
and Mr. Paul Brennan.
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