Education decay: Govt alone not to blame – Egbewole

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, has said that the government alone should not be blamed for the poor state of the nation’s education,pointing out that the educational institutions, the staff unions, and parents  should also share in the blame.

Prof. Egbewole made these remarks penultimate Friday (May 24, 2024) while presenting a paper, titled “Nigerian Education System: Interrogating Internal Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness”, at the Nigeria Army Institute of Science Education and Technology (NAISET)’s Senior Executive Course, held at Sobi Cantonment, Ilorin.

To correct the anomalies and put the educational sector of Africa’s most populous country on a proper development path, the Vice Chancellor suggested that conscious and deliberate steps should be taken to increase funding for the education sector while all the stakeholders, government, parents, universities/tertiary institutions, private sectors, staff unions, students and indeed the administrators of institutions should come together and take appropriate decisions on the effective management of education in the country.

  Prof. Egbewole lamented that the funding of the education sector in the last 20 years has lagged significantly behind the 15-20% suggested benchmark prescribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

 The Vice Chancellor also lamented the wastage in the name of the severance gratuity for political office holders after successful completion of their tenure, which also comes with largesse of outrageous pension packages.

Prof. Egbewole said, “I have no doubts in my mind that the kind of democracy we run is expensive and we have not managed it within the context of our resources. We have equally failed to be prudent in running the kind of democracy we have”. He asked, “How do we justify the number of aides appointed as political office holders; how do we justify the amount of money by way of salaries, allowances and emoluments? How do we justify the level of profligacy, greed, corruption, extravagance etc going on in our system?”

 The Senior Advocate of Nigeria pointed out that to restore the educational system to the path of efficiency and effectiveness, part of oil subsidy removed should be directed to education.

He said, “With the era of subsidy removal, while I hold no brief for the government, the recommended 26% budgetary allocation to education may not be realisable but increased budget allocation is on the horizon. This, I must say,  remains in the realm of conjecture but as a critical stakeholder, if oil subsidy is removed, part of the gains should be budgeted for education”.

  Prof. Egbewole further stressed the need for government to change the current salary structure in the education sector if efficiency is to be returned. According to him, most workers in the sector are earning only surviving wages, saying this must be addressed quickly if we desire the best for the sector. “It is not enough to increase the salaries of the workers in this sector rather, appropriate mechanisms must be put in place to properly motivate staffers, create better opportunities to incentivise them and restore their dignity and make them productive. 

 While naming others who are responsible for the decay of the education system, the Professor of International Law and Jurisprudence stressed the need to have wastages reduced or eliminated across various institutions in the country and then, increase the productivity level to justify the available spending on education.

He said, “It is imperative to stress that while funding is seriously affecting and hampering internal efficiency, wastages of the available resources are equally fundamental. There is an issue of corruption by the managers of affairs of the education sector either at the policy level or at the level of implementation. The question is, what are the educational institutions using the money available to them for?

 Speaking on the human element in the determination of internal efficiency, the Vice Chancellor said that there is no way Nigeria can get to the optimal level if the universities are run with persistent industrial issues. “Can we compete in the 21st Century if we have our schools closed for eight months?”, he queried.

  Speaking further, he said, “There is also the need for our unions to engage government constructively, deliberately and in a very pragmatic manner. The government must abandon its Olympian posture to positively address all issues afflicting inefficiencies in the education sector and willing to invest more in it. Equally important are the workers in the sector who must be ready to work as their counterparts in the developed economies and shun all forms of sloppiness. A proper mix of all of these parametres will ensure a level of efficiency in the sector. We will, however, only be able to maximise our gains if there is a fundamental shift in attitude across the spectrum. As it has been said, our attitude-will ultimately define our altitude”.

  Prof. Egbewole, however, posited that “the government cannot provide all that we need to change the narrative of the education sector to attain internal efficiency”, pointing out that “there must be a collaboration between the government, private sector and parents to achieve appreciable improvement. This collaboration must be such that all the parties must be willing and ready to engage truthfully”.