Scholars and stakeholders in the education sector have called for a decentralised policy and policy formulation in the areas of education by the Federal government.
The stakeholders agreed that allowing the states to take charge of making and implementing policies relating to educational needs of their individual states would go a long way in allowing for faster and even development of the various states.
The call was made at the 2017 Foundation Day Lecture of Lead City University, Ibadan which had the theme, “Federalism, Regionalisation and Ethnicity: Foundation of Nigerian Education Policies”.
Leading the call, the guest lecturer and former deputy governor of Ekiti State, Prof. Modupe Adelabu, explained that decentralising the powers of the FG in the areas of policy formulation and implementation entailed limiting the government to establishing national goals for education as stated in the National Policy on Education and ensuring that states complied with the right of the child to education.
The guest lecturer, who traced the genesis of the problems facing the education sector to the ascendancy of the military in Nigerian politics, noted that the early years of Nigeria’s independence, described as the golden age of Federalism or the era of true Federalism, was the period when the constituent units pursued policies that made the quality of education in Nigeria competitive with the rest of the world.
You cannot be in Abuja and know what a child somewhere in a faraway state is going through in his local school. The success of the sector is largely dependent on the funding available to the state
Expressing the strong belief that education was best left to state and local governments, Adelabu stressed that a centralised unified approach might not adequately respond to the problems affecting each state because, “Abuja may, in all likelihood, not appreciate and understand the peculiar needs of each state and their communities and is not in the best position to develop a curriculum and pedagogy tailored to the unique needs and environment of each state.
“The early years of Nigeria’s independence (before the military rule) can be described as the ‘golden age’ of Federalism or the era of ‘true federalism’.
This was also the period when the constituents units pursued policies that made the quality of education in Nigeria competitive with the rest of the world.
“The ascendancy of the military in Nigerian politics reversed this trend and undermined true Federalism. I will want to suggest decentralisation of the power of the Federal Government in the area of education policies and policy implementation.
“Shifting more control over schools to the Federal Government while still leaving the state and local governments with the responsibility to fund schools, will only produce frustration and hinder innovation.
In short, it is best to allow the states and local governments to tailor their education to their local needs. Here lies a sample of the constitutional principle and practice of true Federalism.”
Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, lamented that the educational progress of the country had been trapped in the centralised approach, adding that until the required resources were invested in the sector, the level of education might keep shrugging behind that of other countries.
Olaopa charged states to think out of the box by being creative and resourceful and advised them not to bite more than they could chew by starting more schools than they could manage.
He said, “It is unfortunate that the educational progress of the country is evidently trapped in the centralised approach.
Until the required amount of resources are invested in the sector, the level of education may keep shrugging behind that of other countries.
“You cannot be in Abuja and know what a child somewhere in a faraway state is going through in his local school. The success of the sector is largely dependent on the funding available to the state and how much power they have to regulate.
The states have to do more and think out of the box by being dynamic and creative in generating resources. “More so, there is no better time to return schools back to missionaries.
With the state of things, the missionaries have more resources to manage the schools better. The results from the private universities attest to that.”
