Although the Universal Basic Education is besieged with problems, there are prospects to look forward to. With good planning and management, the programme can serve our children and youth very positively.
Planning is very important. It is our guide. Articulate plans pave way for good management. Good management provides adequate and suitable manpower. Since one of the many problems of the UBE in the late seventies is lack of the adequate planning, the UBE should not be left to lack the same setback. People with adequate and sound knowledge of our educational system should be contracted to plan functional stra.t- egies that would make the UBE programme viable. The practice of contracting economists to plan education should be discouraged. Education is not all about money.
The community today is in good stance to help out in the education of its children. There has to be an effective awareness campaign to re-alert the public on the need for community partnership in education. It is the responsibility of both the government and the community to educate the young.
The government should strive to put the gains of Education Tax Fund to use. With proper and honest management of the E. T.F., the government at all levels may not even be burdened with the funding of education. The money accrued from this fund could be used to fund education. And everyone now has a stake in education. Finance is very important to take care of the provision of teaching and learning materials, structures and infrastructures as well as meet the obligations of teachers' remuneration. Another source to finance primary and indeed levels of education is the establishment of Education Development Bank through its revolving interests and gains.
It would.also be desirable to establish a Primary Education Teaching Commission. Someone has proposed an Institute of Certified Teachers of Nigeria (ITCN). This body would handle the issue of staffing and comprehensive personnel management programmes, which will ensure earnest allocation in a manner that would attract, retain and maintain staff with skills needed for effective teaching and learning as well as
management of primary schools. Efforts to improve education should start at the primary level, not through pronouncements and piecemeal approach, but through a holistic approach aimed at practicalising minimum quality control standards in all areas as specified in the National Policy on Education and other documents.
However, teachers have to take decisive steps to improve themselves for the benefit of their job. After all, no country can raise above the level of its teachers. If teachers are not good enough how do we expect them to raise a good enough youth population at the pool of any country's workforce and ultimate development.
Whether or not Nigeria is, by international practice or constitutional provision, obliged to provide universal education for her citizens to the extent that Nigerians have come to regard and claim it as a birth right,whether or not Nigeria will come to be an effective democracy, which would give the UPE and UBE among other things a basic political and civic function, there seems to be no doubt that UPE and UBE in Nigeria will as elsewhere enhance the stature of men, and improve the quality of life for all citizens.
Primary education whether it is described as UPE or UBE remains the bedrock upon which the entire educational system rests. We look forward to the UBE programme to fulfill our dream. It is not the name of a programme or what management body takes charge that does the magic. The magic is in the way and manner through which this level of education is governed.
Planning is very important. It is our guide. Articulate plans pave way for good management. Good management provides adequate and suitable manpower. Since one of the many problems of the UBE in the late seventies is lack of the adequate planning, the UBE should not be left to lack the same setback. People with adequate and sound knowledge of our educational system should be contracted to plan functional stra.t- egies that would make the UBE programme viable. The practice of contracting economists to plan education should be discouraged. Education is not all about money.
The community today is in good stance to help out in the education of its children. There has to be an effective awareness campaign to re-alert the public on the need for community partnership in education. It is the responsibility of both the government and the community to educate the young.
The government should strive to put the gains of Education Tax Fund to use. With proper and honest management of the E. T.F., the government at all levels may not even be burdened with the funding of education. The money accrued from this fund could be used to fund education. And everyone now has a stake in education. Finance is very important to take care of the provision of teaching and learning materials, structures and infrastructures as well as meet the obligations of teachers' remuneration. Another source to finance primary and indeed levels of education is the establishment of Education Development Bank through its revolving interests and gains.
It would.also be desirable to establish a Primary Education Teaching Commission. Someone has proposed an Institute of Certified Teachers of Nigeria (ITCN). This body would handle the issue of staffing and comprehensive personnel management programmes, which will ensure earnest allocation in a manner that would attract, retain and maintain staff with skills needed for effective teaching and learning as well as
management of primary schools. Efforts to improve education should start at the primary level, not through pronouncements and piecemeal approach, but through a holistic approach aimed at practicalising minimum quality control standards in all areas as specified in the National Policy on Education and other documents.
However, teachers have to take decisive steps to improve themselves for the benefit of their job. After all, no country can raise above the level of its teachers. If teachers are not good enough how do we expect them to raise a good enough youth population at the pool of any country's workforce and ultimate development.
Whether or not Nigeria is, by international practice or constitutional provision, obliged to provide universal education for her citizens to the extent that Nigerians have come to regard and claim it as a birth right,whether or not Nigeria will come to be an effective democracy, which would give the UPE and UBE among other things a basic political and civic function, there seems to be no doubt that UPE and UBE in Nigeria will as elsewhere enhance the stature of men, and improve the quality of life for all citizens.
Primary education whether it is described as UPE or UBE remains the bedrock upon which the entire educational system rests. We look forward to the UBE programme to fulfill our dream. It is not the name of a programme or what management body takes charge that does the magic. The magic is in the way and manner through which this level of education is governed.
Social Plugin