***Nigeria may not be able to compete in the 21st Century
The president of the Senate Ahmad Lawan on Thursday blamed education managers in the country for the lapses that stagnated the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), in Ondo State for three decades without fulfilling its mandate.
Lawan spoke when he declared open a public hearing on a bill to back up the establishment of the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Ondo, Ondo State.
The Institute was established in 1992 by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNESCO/International Institute for Educational Planning(IIEP) as a Staff College for Planners and Managers in the Nigeria education sector and West Africa sub-region.
However, Lawan in his remarks lamented that three decades after the institute was established, it had no identity.
To start with the senate President queried the ministry for sending the director of legal services Mrs Grace Ekanem to represent the minister
“Why would the director of legal services represent the minister, don’t we have a doctorate in the ministry that deals with Education planning and administration.
“This is not good, that individuals just come here meanwhile the real people are not here.
Ekanem responded saying that there is a director who is out of the country at the moment but that he made input to the presentation.
Continuing Lawan said,
“You are from legal services but what we are dealing with here is not only legal
“We are looking at the functionality of this institute and those that are supposed to move it to actualise the mandate should be here even if you are coming in to guide them from the legal perspective they should be here because they should be able to say certain things
“This is 30 years of this institute and it is just now we are giving it a name.For the 30 years it remained a child maybe an adolescent or an adult that had no name for 30 years.
“I will like to know what this institute has planned for the educational sector of Nigeria for the 30 years because for me this is the base of the stakeholders of education in Nigeria. “All the others are supposed to key in to what the planners have for us. So this is a very critical institute.
“That is why we are where we are today in education, because we have pushed this institute far at the back seat. It is supposed to be at the drivers seat
“I think we should be more serious with this and I will advise that we come out with what the educational plan on is for Nigeria
“Everything about our educational life should have direction, measurable targets, we don’t have anything, we are just groping in the dark and it is not good for us. If we want to be giant of Africa we have to do things that will make us giant of Africa.”
He said as lawmakers they are politicians that needs the help of education managers
“Don’t misunderstand me, we on this side we are politicians everybody catches us but you can make us or you mar us, you are supposed to help us.
“If we go back to our senatorial districts you see millions of the youths, you are not telling us what to do about over 20 million out of school children
“We should have a comprehensive plan at every level, you should help us with that because everybody is to key into the your policies
Speaking on the public hearing he said, “This is an opportunity for us to ensure that we make the institute as effective, efficient and professional as possible.
“So here is an opportunity for us to have a no holds barred interaction and discussion because the essence of this bill is to make NIEPA worthy of its mandate.”
He charged participants to feel free to say what is encouraging and is necessary given the direction of the bill.
Lawan expressed the hope that the outcome of the public hearing will provide the senate with an opportunity to make the right decision in terms of how the institute should be as professional as possible.
“In 2005 I was made chairman of House Committee on Education, my problem with this institute is that it is not giving Nigeria the service it deserves.
“I am sorry I said we should hold a frank discussion and don’t feel very bad, I am not blaming you, I am blaming Nigeria because when you are in the education planning institute, you hold the ace for the development of your country.
“It is what you provide that makes or mars Nigeria from making progress but you have to be also properly supported to do your work
“We are still not ready for the 21st century economy, if you want to attract foreign direct investment, in fact any investment at all, labour is a critical factor of production from elementary economics.
“So what type of labour are we providing, we have to provide the type of labour which will provide first class when you set up your industry or your businesses, 21st century types of businesses, you don’t have to go and bring people from outside the country because it will drain your foreign reserve unnecessarily,.
“So it means we have to get our people, our youths, very energetic, properly educated and prepared for the 21st century economy
“It is for this reason that i think the time is ripe and the time is now that the Planning and administration institute is funded properly for you to give Nigeria the kind of education that will provide a successful future for our country.
“We still teach in our schools subjects in the way we taught them fifty years ago. With that there is no way you can compete favourably even in West Africa with that kind of approach. So I think, we have to do something.
“For us in the national assembly, ours is to look at the loopholes in the law and do so urgently and also on how you are able to discharge your mandate as set in the laws establishing you
“I want to assure you that in addition to the amendments that this bill seeks, we will try to see that you are better supported to enable you discharge your mandate more effectively and efficiently ensuring that the basic and secondary education in Nigeria become better and that is a huge challenge because that is where our most difficult problem in education is.
“When you have 14m or 15m sometimes they quote 10m and I argue it is more than that, if you are talking of those who don’t go to private schools what of those who finished JSS and are not able to proceed to the SSS and they roam the streets and they are hardly engaged in a productive activity, they are there in millions
“So if we do our work well and research, we could be talking about 20m children of such out of school children. Can we afford? Because they are feed stocks to insurgency, banditry and to anything that is bad
“So we have to work so hard to provide the environment and climate to capture and retain these king of citizens that should be provided with a good future not only for themselves but also for national Development.”
In his welcome address, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Education(Basic and Secondary), Senator Ibrahim Gaidam, said the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration(Establishment) Bill 2022 sought to give legal backing to already functioning institution.
Gaidam said the institute was established in 1992 with three-fold mandate which was intended to move forward the professionalization of educational planning and administration.
“The essence of this public hearing is for the critical stakeholders and indeed the general public to objectively make their submissions to the committee for an informed recommendations to the Senate to pass or reject the Bill as proposed,” Senator Gaidam said.
Speaking at the commencement of the public hearing, the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Ayo Akinyelure said “sadly despite the institute’s enormous potentials and it’s long years of existence and operations, it does not have an enabling law to regulate it’s activities to strengthen and entrench its core mandates.
“The crux of this public hearing therefore, is to aggregate stakeholders’ opinion as input with a view to producing enabling laws which will serve as impetus to drive the Nigeria Institute for Educational Planning and Administration activities.”