DR Goodluck Jonathans victory at the recently concluded Presidential Election immediately presents a rare opportunity for him to personally take charge of and redeem the countrys education sector, stakeholders have said.But the appropriate way to go about it, according to them, is for the President to appoint competent individuals, based purely on merit, to handle the critical aspects of the sector, who will then give him progress reports on a regular basis.The positions in the sector, which they insist, fall under this category include: the offices of both the substantive Minister and the Minister (s) of State; Chief Executive Officer, Executive Secretary or Registrar as the case may be, of the 21 parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education (FME). Besides, they are imploring the President to also appoint only tested professionals to manage at least seven of the Ministrys 11 departments, namely Basic Education, Tertiary, Federal Inspectorate Services, Human Resources, PPMR, Finance and Accounts and the ICT Services Unit.A statement by the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), which comprises 500 nongovernmental organizations located in different parts of the country advised that, Jonathan should no longer allow political affiliations, wealth or prominence to influence his appointment of a Minister of Education. Mr President should ensure that the education ministry is led by the best and the most competent, because these men and women will be responsible for the lives of millions of young Nigerians.Since 1999, appointments of Ministers have been based on recommendations by various state governments and party affiliations. The list of recommended candidates for ministerial positions is then sent to the National Assembly, which conducts a screening taken, in most cases, as a mere formality. Such individuals are then posted to the various Ministries, with some ending up where they lack the requisite experience to function properly.Like other Ministries, the FME has experienced frequent changes of its Ministers and Permanent Secretaries, with any one of them hardly spending more than two years. The result has been the deterioration of this important Ministry into an incompetent, corrupt and transactional juggernaut. It also became an agency where a memo, requesting for the award of contracts moves at a faster speed than the one requesting for the deployment of qualified Inspectors to ascertain what is going on in public schools.Besides, it became, unbelievably, a government agency where the Minister of State could easily be at loggerheads with the substantive Minister, such that, instead of working towards a common goal, they operate at crosspurposes.There are six major spheres of the sector that need equal attention. They include: basic education, secondary, adult/non formal, tertiary, early childhood and special needs. While some of the parastatals supervising these different aspects are doing well under their various chief executives, others are performing very poorly. Stakeholders want the President to now create a Special Unit at the Presidency, which will monitor the activities of the various parastatals under the FME and report directly to him over the entire duration of his term of office. That way, policy formulation will not depend entirely on the input of the Minister (s) who, in any case, may not even be fully aware of what is going on. Besides, it will then be possible for the President to ascertain which head of a parastatal is working diligently, and quickly replace the redundant one.While it is not out of place for the FME to organize workshops to tackle various challenges and achieve diverse goals, stakeholders want Jonathan to look inwards and examine the uncountable communiqués that have emerged from various conferences organized by the Ministry over the last 10 years and adopt useful solutions contained therein. This will prevent a waste of resources now being earmarked for another summit. For instance, the recommendations made by the Presidential summit organized and personally chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in October 2006 have not been fully implemented. On the other hand, recommendations adopted by the second Presidential Summit of last year are not yet in the public domain.According to CSACEFA, since it has been established by the international community of which Nigeria is a member, that there is a nexus between education and development, the federal government owes its citizens a duty to provide functional public education system that must also be easily accessible. The coalition affirmed: It has been documented that schooling improves productivity, health, reduces negative features of life such as child labour. It has (also) been shown that education opens doors for all citizens to participate in development activities. Researches over the years have proven that the higher your education, the greater your chances of your escaping poverty.It continued: Nigeria is the (African) continents powerhouse and has the most number of children to educate than any other country in Africa. The challenge it faces is greatboth in ensuring access and improving quality. There are around 24 million children in the country of primary school age, and over 10 million of them do not get the chance to go to school. Despite efforts of governments at all levels in the country and the increase in enrolment rates over the past 10 years, Nigeria tragically has the most out-of-school children than any country in the world. One in every 10 of the children that do not go to school in the world is Nigerian. Linked to this is the issue of quality. Providing good education is dependent on having well-trained and motivated teachers.In Nigeria, only 51 per cent of primary school teachers have received appropriate trainingthis means that half of the children in primary schools are being taught by unqualified teachers. Class sizes are also too highthere is an average of 40 pupils for every teacher, and in the most marginalized areas, this gets much worse. Examining the situation more closely demonstrates some of the significant problems the government needs to address. The likelihood of a child in Nigeria having the chance to attend school is influenced by where he or she lives, the gender and ethnic group. This becomes clear by considering the average number of years that different groups of children spend in school. Overall, the average length of time that a child in Nigeria spends in school is six and a half years. Wealthy boys and girls who live in urban areas spend an average of 10 years in schoolcompared to just three years for poor females living in rural areas. Over half of those marginalized are in the north of the country a region that is home to groups that make up only one-fifth of the total population. Combine all these together and we find the most disadvantaged group of all: Girls from Northern Nigeria, who come from poor families and live in rural areas. Each spends an average of less than six months in school. The resources are there to make this happen, and it is the political will to deliver it that is required.The coalition also listed 14 major steps the next Education Minister must take to turn the sectors fortune around. The first step is for the Minister to get more funds for the sector. To underscore this recommendation, the coalition submitted: a number of studies suggest that cognitive achievement, as measured by standardized tests, increases as school expenditure, teacher education and school facilities are enhanced. There is need for massive increase in spending on public education at all levels.But closely linked to this, the coalition stated, is the need for the Minister to devise ways of better utilizing and tracking the resources provided by the Federal Government. There is a great need for a better budgeting process with the participation of stakeholders and tracking of the use of the resources for education, the group emphasized. Civil Society organizations and School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) have a big role to play in this regard. The Community Accountability and Transparency Initiative (CATI) is a good mechanism which could sail with the SBMC structure. The CATI was established by former Education Minister, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili.Another step to be considered, according to CSACEFA, is the recruitment of more and better trained teachers. It declared: It is well established that countries that have achieved high learning standards have invested steadily in the teaching profession. There is a need to improve teachers salaries and implement sound pre-service and in-service training (schemes). This is important because how well a teacher is trained and the resultant mastery of the curriculum, and the level of the teachers verbal skills all contribute to quality.On remuneration and working conditions for teachers, CSACEFA stated: It has been argued that optimal working conditions for teachers directly contribute to the good quality of public education. Every effort should be made to provide teachers, who possess the necessary moral and intellectual qualities and who have the requisite professional knowledge and skills, with the appropriate salary and conditions of service. Furthermore, the teachers salary should reflect the importance of the teaching profession to the society and should compare favourably with the salaries paid in other professions with equivalent qualifications.
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