Rumpus over planned declaration of emergency in education

 

Stakeholders have expressed concern over the declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector by the Federal Government.

According to them, the declaration of a state of emergency in the sector is long overdue as it the nation’s educational system is already in that situation.

They argue that the plan by the government was another political move to deceive the masses at the twilight of the current administration.

The National Economic Council had earlier said that it was working towards declaring a state of emergency in the nation’s education sector.

Based on a previous presentation by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on “National Education Policy, Prospects, Challenges and Way Forward”, the council set up an Ad-hoc Committee on the Revival of the Education Sector in Nigeria to review and submit recommendations.

Areas the council planned to revive include: the issue of out-of-school children, adult illiteracy and special needs education, Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Technical areas, Vocational Education and Training, basic education, teacher education, capacity building and professional development, quality and easy access in tertiary education, ICT in education, library services in education and others.

According to the council, all governors are to declare a state of emergency in the education sectors of their respective states and demonstrate their commitment to revamping education.

The Federal Government and states are also to allocate a minimum of 15 per cent of their budgets to education in order to revolutionalise the sector.

The governments were also advised to constitute special task force to manage the funds and oversee the infrastructural overhaul of selected schools for intervention across the federation.

But in their reactions to this new move, stakeholders have said that the education system was already in danger and calling for a state of emergency at this stage was far behind time.

The Founder, Impact Business School, Owolabi Oladejo, argued that a formal declaration of a state of emergency would have no fundamental effect on the nation’s education sector as it was already in a dangerous situation.

“We have a bad story already; whether you declare or you do not declare, we already have an emergency,” he said.

The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, described the moves by the council to declare a state of emergency in the education sector as another of their politics of deceit aimed at hoodwinking the people during electioneering period.

According to him, the Federal Government has made so many unfulfilled promises and talking about a state of emergency at the twilight of the administration is another cheap promise.

Ogunyemi said that the increase in budgetary allocation was part of what led to the collapse of ASUU’s negotiation with the Federal Government, wondering why they were now promising what they had initially refused to do.

The ASUU president said, “The state of emergency is just a promise and promises are cheap. Anybody can make promises but until we see them putting it into practice, that is when we can believe them. The ruling party in their manifesto said they will devote a minimum of 20 per cent to education; for almost four years they have never implemented that. So, if they are waking up now to implement them at the twilight of their administration, we cannot believe them. We do not trust politicians. Until they put their promises into practice, nobody should believe them.

“As for the state of emergency, they should put the policies into action. We went to the negotiating table that the government should fulfill the promise they made in their party manifesto and last year the education minister advised that Nigeria should move towards 20 per cent budgetary allocation. But when we went to negotiating table, the Minister’s words did not reflect.

“We have been reminding them of the state of emergency from when it was first mentioned and the issue of the budgetary allocation, which was what led to the collapse of the ASUU- Federal Government negotiation. Babalakin who represented the Federal Government on the negotiation table said we should not talk about budgetary allocation and they are here promising to allocate 15 per cent at the twilight of their administration.

“State governors have not demonstrated good will, the Federal Government has not demonstrated good will and if anyone is saying we will start putting 15 per cent for education, let us see it in the 2019 budget. When they put 15 per cent, they can release 5 per cent. We do not believe in their promises until we see the promises in action.”

The ASUU president further talked about the attitudes of state governors in revamping the education sector. He disclosed that the states that refused to access the Universal Basic Education Commission fund did not want to release their matching grant.

He said, “Look at the state governors, as many as seventeen states did not access the UBEC fund totaling about 16billion. They did not access it then because they were not committed to the issue of education. Imagine what that amount would have done to transforming the primary and secondary education in Nigeria. If such people are waking up to say they are going to put 15 per cent of their budgets in education, I do not believe them. We have such amount laying idle in Abuja.

“If they mean business, they should start from accessing the UBEC fund. Some for four to five years did not access the fund because they were not ready to release the matching grant required to access the UBEC fund. If they have been doing that, do you expect us to believe them now?”

Speaking in the same vein, the Vice Chancellor of the Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, Prof. Jeremiah Ojediran, said that the council had been too slow in declaring a state of emergency as the education system was already in a deplorable
state.

Ojediran said, “Many state governments have neglected education and failed to pay teachers; a development which has led to deplorable state of the sector. Education is an area where every government worldwide must invest. As you are investing in education, you are investing in the
future.

“There are states in this country that have neglected the education system. Let’s start with public primary schools. If the structures are there, they are dilapidated. The teachers in there are suffering. So, how can they teach well? And if you move to the secondary schools, they are in the same
situation.”