the future by us

Transcription

the future by us

THE FUTURE BY US
Rebuilding Nigeria’s Education System
The Nigerian Education Policy Review, Vol. 1 Feb 2014
Edited by
Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya &
Gori Olusina Daniel
“Diaspora groups such as the Every Nigerian Child Project make us very proud, as
not only do they raise issues of national concern, they also work to mobilise people;
Nigerians and friends of Nigeria, to be part of the solution.”
-
His Excellency Dr Dalhatu Tafida OFR CFR, Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK & Ireland
ENCP delegation accompanied by Chief Odegbami pay a courtesy visit to Dr Dalhatu Tafida, HE Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK
THE FUTURE BY US
Rebuilding Nigeria’s Education System
The Nigerian Education Policy Review, Vol. 1 Feb 2014

Policy advocacy to promote and mainstream best practice, and transform Nigeria
through evidence-led education reform
------
Edited by
Dr. Ifechukwu Nnatuanya &
Gori Olusina Daniel
First published in Great Britain in 2013
World Changers Media & Publishing
73 Lowfield St, Dartford, DA1 1HP
Copyright © Every Nigerian Child Project 2013
Professor PAI Obanya, Ron Tuck, Kayode Sanni, John Martin, Wale Samuel, Dr Modupe AdefesoOlateju, Bunmi Lawson, Dr Moses Adi, Dr David Ogbueli, Alero Ayida-Otobo, Olajumoke B.
Bamigboye, Chris Maiyaki, Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya, and Gori Olusina Daniel have asserted their
right under Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as authors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without acknowledging the author and the publisher.
The World Changers Foundation does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its
publications.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
About the authors
Foreword by Ambassador Dozie Nwanna OON, Former
Deputy Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom &
Ireland, 1
Introduction
Gori Olusina Daniel, 2
1) Transforming Nigeria’s vast population into a National
Asset
Professor PAI Obanya, 4
2) Understanding the current state of Nigeria’s Education
System
Ron Tuck & Kayode Sanni, 8
3) Making education work in Nigeria – A 10 Step
Integrated Framework for Education Reform
John Martin, 12
4) A conceptual framework for promoting transparency
and tackling corruption in Nigeria’s public education
system
Wale Samuel, 17
5) What can public schools learn from private schools
to improve learning outcomes in Nigeria?
Dr Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, 20
6) A Roadmap for Education Transformation in Nigeria
Bunmi Lawson, 23
7) Improving Nigeria’s Education System – The role of
individuals and NGOs
Dr Moses Adi, 26
8) How individuals and NGOs can contribute to rebuilding
Nigeria’s education system
Dr David Ogbueli, 29
9) The Finnish Education System – Lessons for Nigeria
Alero Ayida-Otobo, 34
10) The Every Nigerian Child Project
Olajumoke B. Bamigboye, 37
2012 FUTURE BY US EDUCATION SUMMIT: Conference
Summary Report
Chris Maiyaki, 40
Conclusion: Rebuilding Nigeria’s
Policy Imperatives
Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya, 42
Index
Education
System:
About the authors
ABOUT THE
AUTHORS
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Professor PAI Obanya is the Chairman Presidential Taskforce
Team on Education and one of Africa’s foremost education
sector specialists. In addition to his numerous distinctions from
over 50 years of professional service to education sector
reform across Africa, he is a member of the ENCP Senior
Advisory Board.
Ron Tuck is the former National Programme Manager for the
DFID funded Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria
(ESSPIN), a UK funded education intervention programme in
six States across Nigeria.
Kayode Sanni is the National Programme Manager for the
(ESSPIN), a UK funded education intervention programme in
six States across Nigeria.
John Martin is a former National Programme Manager for the
(ESSPIN). He is a director with Cambridge Education – the
Education Sector specialists, and DFID Delivery Managers of
the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria.
Wale Samuel is the former Policy Advisor to the Abuja based
Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All. With over
400 members, it remains the largest civil society coalition of its
kind in the world.
Dr Modupe Adefeso-Olateju is the CEO of The Education
Partnership Centre (TEP Centre) which is Nigeria’s foremost
consultancy firm for designing, brokering and facilitating
education partnership projects, and a co-founder of the Every
Nigerian Child Project.
Bunmi Lawson is the pioneer Managing Director/Chief
Executive Officer of ACCION Microfinance Bank Limited.
ACCION prides itself as a model microfinance bank with
unique, well researched products and services provided to
delight its customers. She is also a Director of VLA Lawrence
& Associates, a leading Human Resources services
organization
Dr Moses Adi is the President Living Seed Academy a low-fee
private school in Benue State Nigeria, and an independent
Security Consultant.
Dr David Ogbueli is a Conference speaker and a Consultant
in Human Resource Development and National Reformation.
He is the founder and President of Global Missions Network
and the Senior Pastor of Dominion City Church. He is the
Executive Producer and Principal Host of the Expand Your
World TV and Radio broadcast.
© 2014 Every Nigerian Child Project. All Rights Reserved.
Foreword
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Alero Ayida-Otobo is the coordinator of the Education
Reform Team and CEO Incubator Africa Limited, a
development agency that partners with delivery-minded
governments and agencies responsible for managing
education and health systems to improve and transform
schools and primary health centers by building their capacity to
transform their operations and achieve measurable outcomes.
She is also a member of the ENCP Senior Advisory Board.
Olajumoke Bamigboye is the Managing Partner at Fibonacci
Investment Consultants CEO of Hěveneiress and a co-founder
of the Every Nigerian Child Project.
Chris Maiyaki is a Deputy Director at the Nigeria University
Commission, and the chief of Staff to the Executive Secretary.
Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya is a Director of DPI Associates Ltd
a UK based specialist Transformation practice. He is a cofounder of the Every Nigerian Child Project.
Gori Olusina Daniel is a partner at Adams & Moore, a firm of
auditors, tax and business advisors and the executive director
at the World Changers Foundation. He is a co-founder of the
Every Nigerian Child Project.
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Foreword
Foreword by His
Excellency
Ambassador
Dozie Nwanna
OON, former Deputy
Over three decades of military dictatorship has left Nigeria’s
Nigeria High Commissioner
to the United Kingdom and
Northern Ireland
of the role each and every Nigerian citizen must play in
social infrastructure in ruins. The 2011 elections were widely
expected to usher in a new democratically elected administration,
which would further strengthen Africa’s largest democracy.
As Nigeria’s democracy matures, there is a rising consciousness
strengthening our institutions, holding our leaders to account,
while playing a full role in shaping the future we want for our great
nation.
In 2010, the Next Generation – an independent think tank chaired
by
Ngozi
Okoji-Iweala,
Nigeria’s
Finance
Minister
and
coordinating Minister for the economy, produced an influential
report on the future of Nigeria which concluded that:
“By 2030, young people, not oil will be Nigeria’s most
valuable asset”
The report concludes that this positive picture of the future is
unlikely to be achieved without the right level of investment in
education, healthcare and social infrastructure.
The realisation of Nigeria’s potential lies in developing highlyskilled upwardly mobile citizens. The consequences are dire if
nothing is done to engage and equip the next generation with the
skills they need to meaningfully engage with an increasingly
competitive knowledge-based society.
I commend the efforts and dedication of the talented women and
men who convened in London in February 2011 to develop a high
level framework for all those working to improve Nigeria’s
education sector over the next 10 years, the many others who
contributed to the success of the summit, as well as those who
have continued to work tirelessly doing what they can, to see that
every Nigerian child has access to good quality education that
enables them to make a positive contribution to society.
This compilation of policy briefings and imperatives is a call to
action.
Ambassador Dozie Nwanna OON
1
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Introduction Gori Olusina Daniel
Introduction
Gori Olusina Daniel
About the author
Gori Olusina Daniel is a
partner at Adams & Moore, a
firm of auditors, tax and
business advisors and the
executive director at the World
Changers Foundation. He is a
co-founder of the Every
In 2007, following a comprehensive assessment of
education delivery in Nigeria, Dr Oby Ezekwesili the former
Minister of Education, declared Nigeria’s education
system to be in a state of crisis – a result of decades of
neglect, and predicted that without immediate action, by
2020, Nigeria would have produced a significant
population of highly trained, skilled and motivated
criminals.
Leading on from two successive summits, the first in London,
convened and hosted by the Nigerian High Commission in
February 2011, and the second, hosted with generous support
from the Federal Ministry of Education and the National
University Commission in Abuja in February 2012, and as
many roundtable discussions with an extended range of
stakeholders in the British House of Commons, convened and
hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Education for
All; we conclude that despite the considerable efforts of
governments at all levels and non-state actors, and some
noticeable improvement in percentage enrolment and
improved access for girls, Nigeria’s education system is sadly,
by and large, still in a critical state of emergency.
The State of Nigeria’s Education System
Today, with regards to education, Nigeria is on the global map
for all the wrong reasons:


1 in 6 school age children not in school worldwide are
Nigerians.
With 10.5 million children out of school and rising,
Nigeria is home to the highest number of out of school
children worldwide.
But as the frequently quoted 10.5m figure does not include the
20m and 6.5m un-enrolled for Early Childhood and Junior
Secondary Education, the scale of the challenge from all
indications is vastly understated



With 62% of children from the poorest quintile,
compared with less than 2% from the richest quintile of
Nigerian households out of school, the poor are the
most affected.
At 35 million, Nigeria also has the fourth highest
concentration of illiterate adults worldwide.
In 2008, 53% of girls could not read or write after six
years of school; a rise of 12% from 2003 (41%).
2
Introduction Gori Olusina Daniel




In Kano, Northern Nigeria, in a
training needs analysis conducted by
ESSPIN, 78% of teachers were found
to have limited knowledge of English
language.
With over 21,274 malpractice cases
recorded, almost 1 in 3 students who
sat for the 2012 NECO exams were
caught cheating.
Less than 4 in 10 of students who sat
the 2012 WAEC examinations
passed, an increase of 8% on 2011.
122,000 2012 WAEC results were
withheld on suspicion of exam
malpractice.
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Center and Incubator Africa which exist to
help coordinate, design, broker and facilitate
the key partnerships that can channel the
much need resources to the interventions
that makes the most difference on learner
achievement and learning outcomes, are
emerging.
Some Good News
The situation is alarming, but not without
hope. Indeed, there is some good news.
As you will conclude from reading through
the articles in this inaugural edition of the
Nigerian Education Policy Review, the critical
issues are well understood, as are the
potential solutions.
There is also clear,
noticeable, slow but significant progress to
report all across the country in States as
diverse as Rivers, Lagos, Jigawa, Cross
River and beyond.
From our engagement with a cross section of
education stakeholders through the Future
By Us Education Summits from which the
articles in this edition of the Nigerian
Education Policy Review are drawn, there
appears to be a clear recognition that the
resource challenges that continue to pose a
serious threat to Nigeria’s education system
will not be resolved by government alone.
This is clearly good reason for cautious
optimism. The Nigerian state of emergency
in the education sector has attracted a
groundswell of support from corporate
organizations, indigenous and international
foundations, grant making trusts and NGOs,
howbeit, largely uncoordinated, which has
significantly limited its impact.
This is important to note, as organisations
such as The Education Partnership (TEP)
This must be seen as a welcome
development as more Nigerians and friends
of Nigerians respond to the rally cry; we need
to find efficient ways of harnessing the will,
desire and support for urgent change.
Chiefly, it is important to appreciate that
today our challenge is more complex than
simply getting children into school. It is
determining the most effective way of
channeling resources to keep them in school
and ensure they receive good quality
education that enables them to make a
positive contribution to society.
The Every Nigerian Child Project was
established in 2012 to enhance the capacity
of those working to ensure every Nigerian
child goes to school and has access to good
quality education that enables them to make
a positive contribution to society. We trust
you will find inspirational, thought provoking,
yet practical ideas in this inaugural edition of
the Nigeria Education Policy Review, as you
consider what more you can do to play your
part in improving Nigeria’s education system.
Because, if Nigeria’s education system must
improve, it starts with all of us doing what we
can – whatever that is, to give every Nigerian
child access to good quality education.
3
Transforming Nigeria’s vast population into a national asset Professor PAI Obanya
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
1: Transforming Nigeria’s vast population into a national asset
Professor PAI Obanya
About the Author
Prof PAI Obanya is the
Chairman
Presidential
Taskforce of Education
and one of Africa’s
foremost education sector
specialists. This article
has been produced from
his key note presentation
at the 2012 Future By Us
Education Summit held at
the National Universities
Commission, Abuja from
16 – 17 February 2012.
The common assertion that Nigeria is blessed with abundant
human resources is flawed.
Though the potential to transform Nigeria’s vast population into a truly
immeasurably valuable national asset is undeniable, we must stop
thinking that this will be achieved simply because it should. An allencompassing empowerment strategy is required to transform Nigeria’s
vast population from a mere teeming mass of non-directional, nonproductive people groups without a unifying sense of collective purpose
into a national asset. Government, citizens, parents, educators; we all
have a role to play, and it is our moral duty to do what we can.
Re-Defining Empowerment
Empowerment is a multi-dimensional social concept whose definition
should not be obscured in the fog of the political rhetoric that litters our
national newspapers, airwaves and news channels. It is an all-round
process with four defining dimensions; psychological, sociological,
economic and political, which collectively encapsulate what it means to
be ‘empowered’.
Table 1.1 – The Four Dimensions of Empowerment
Psychological
Empowerment
Sociological
Empowerment
Economic
Empowerment
Political
Empowerment
Intellectual Development
Social Inclusion
Critical Skills
Civil Liberties
Emotional Maturity
Vertical and horizontal
social mobility
Enhanced Earnings
Democratic Participation
Positive Self-Concept
Gender Equality
Self-actualisation
Freedom of choice
/association
Propensity to Learn
Assertiveness
Quality Education
Access to Information
Table 1.1 above illustrates each of the four dimensions of empowerment as characterised by four
key elements and discussed below.
a)
Psychological
Empowerment:
This
encompasses the need to nurture
reasoning and mental abilities to the
fullest level possible, the ability to control
one’s own emotions and be sensitive to
other people’s emotions and unspoken
needs (i.e. emotional intelligence),
strong belief in one’s capabilities, and
highly developed learning-to-learn skills
coupled with an abiding interest in
continuous development.
b)
Sociological Empowerment: This is
characterised by the absence of
discrimination
and
marginalization,
absence of restrictions to social mobility,
equal life chances for men and women,
and the self-confidence and conditions
required to pursue life free from timidity
and suppression.
c)
Economic
Empowerment:
This
encapsulates
the
combination
of
knowledge, technical and social skills
that enable people to earn a living, and
4
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
act productively to contribute to societal
wellbeing and wealth creation, as well as
the environment and opportunities to
improve one’s earnings and self-defined
goals without imposed limits, and the
existence of opportunities to develop
one’s capabilities.
d)
Political Empowerment: This presents
the conditions required for citizens to
fully exercise their fundamental human
rights which include the fundamental
freedoms of a democracy, the freedom
to belong to political parties of choice, to
vote and be voted for; the ability to
exercise the right to take one’s own
decisions and take responsibility for the
results of one’s actions, and freedom of
access to information for enlightenment,
knowledge and enhanced capacity for
informed
decision
making
and
democratic participation.
1. Create an enabling Environment
It takes political leadership at the highest
levels to create an enabling environment
that empowers people and allows
empowered people to fully exercise their
power. This involves playing good politics
where the common good is valued over
personal gain and long term legacies
over short term gain. This requires more
sophisticated strategic planning where
core stakeholders are carried along,
greater levels of accountability for the use
of public resources, and incentives and
rewards for talent, merit, creativity,
innovation and good governance.
Empowerment is at the core of what it means
to be a human being living in a free, fair and
safe society with the freedom and opportunity
to pursue the achievement of one’s true
potentials and highest aspirations.
Only
when individuals, groups and communities
have been empowered psychologically,
sociologically, economically and politically
can they be considered to be truly
empowered, and in so doing become as a
collective unit, capable of being considered a
truly valuable national asset. But this will not
happen because it should.
2. Promote Genuine Education for All
As can be observed from table 1.2 below,
reducing education to schooling grossly
limits the transformative impact of
education. Education encompasses the
vast range of developmental influences
that are contributed by formal institutions,
parents, churches, mosques, community
groups etc., this needs to be hard-coded
into the development and implementation
of Nigeria’s education policy.
Making it Happen
Nigeria, much like any country in the 21st
century that wishes to translate the brute
might of its vast population into a valuable
national asset must establish four key
anchors to effect this paradigm shift; namely:
Table 1.2 Genuine Education vs. Schooling
Major
Characteristics
Mere Schooling


Ministries of Education – lonely in
charge
Formal institutions
Selected Early childhood groups
Selected children and
adolescents
Selected youth



Grade progression
Specialization
Qualification for Job hunting
Agency
Beneficiaries
Goals
Genuine Education














Ministries of Education coordinate
Formal institutions
Variety of society resources
All citizens
All stages of life
All material and social conditions
All talents
Personality development
Social and technical skills
Lifelong learning
Creativity & Resourcefulness
5
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Major
Characteristics
Main Resources
Mere Schooling


Genuine Education
Government budgets
Teachers, infrastructure, materials
in a poor state






Processes


Frontal teaching
Examinations



Certificates
Massive failure in examinations
Poor level of adaptation to the
demands of the world of work
Wastage/poor returns on
education sector investment


Outcomes

The Nation’s
ultimate gain

Low level of education efforts’
contribution to overall national
development
3.
Educate for All Talents:
Most education programmes have a narrow
focus on the intellectual type of talent. In
Nigeria’s case, even this has not been
adequately attended to. The narrow-focus
approach largely accounts for the boy-child
disaffection with schooling that is now
spreading from the South-East to other parts
of the country. It is also partly explains the
mass failure syndrome observed in public
examinations.
Figure 1.1 Variety of human talents education should
cater for
Government budget
Other sector resources
Non-Government input
Teachers, materials, infrastructure in a more
satisfactory state
A supportive socio-economic and political
superstructure
Participatory, activity-based teaching and
learning
Learning from life situations, events and
phenomena
Life skills development




Learning
A critical mass of ‘learning individuals’
Closer link with the world of work
Improved socio-economic yield on education
sector investment

Enhanced contribution to national
development
Enhanced preparedness for the Knowledge
Economy

uses subject matter knowledge not simply for
memorizing facts and figures but as a tool for
nurturing full human capacity development by
helping learners discover and harness their
core skills and talents.
4.
Genuinely Invest in Education:
Figure 1.2: Breakdown of Education Expenditure
% Break down of education spending
Nigeria
Best Practice
School Level Expenditure
0
Teacher Development
0
Teaching-Learning Materials
5
10
4.2
15
29.2
Infrastructure
20
33.3
35
Teacher Emoluments
20.8
Official Education Sector Bureaucracy
Political Management of Education
Figure 1.1 below illustrates the variety of
human talents education should cater for.
What is therefore being advocated is a
paradigm shift in curriculum development that
10
12.5
5
As depicted in Figure 1.2 above, the bulk of
Nigeria’s education budget goes on teacher
salaries and benefits, official education
bureaucracy and political management, while
little or nothing goes to teacher development,
school level expenditure and teachinglearning materials. Genuine investment in
6
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
education requires a shift in emphasis to
items that are likely to exert a positive
multiplier effect on the system i.e. teacher
development, teaching-learning materials
and school level spending.
This if
implemented, will mean spending less on the
political management of education, and
require clear undistorted political will.
psychological, sociological, political and
economic disempowerment on the vast
majority of Nigerians, the advent of
democracy and the existence of democratic
institutions such as the national and state
Houses of Assembly, the Judiciary and a free
press, should suggest to us that Nigerians
are already empowered.
5.
Education
business
Economically, home grown multi-national
corporations such as the Dangote Group and
the OandO Group who are already making
global impact provide positive proof of the
ability of Nigerian people and corporations to
compete internationally.
Reform
is
everybody’s
Transforming Nigeria’s vast population into a
valuable national asset is not only possible;
we all have a moral duty to play our part in
making it happen. The advent of Boko
Haram, kidnappers, Niger delta militants and
similar groups springing up across the
country make this an urgent national
imperative, as it impacts us all.
Nigerians have a narrow definition of
government.
This places the pace of
development and transformation in the hands
of the few who have found themselves in
significant positions of public leadership.
While we cannot deny that over 30 years of
military dictatorship has left deep scars of
Nigeria’s political leaders clearly have a role
to play in creating an enabling environment,
but nothing should stop teachers, parents,
community groups and religious institutions
from playing an even greater role in
discovering and harnessing the talents of
learners. In so doing, they will produce a
new generation of Nigerian leaders who
having experienced a good all-round
education despite imperfect conditions,
recognize the need to be life-long advocates
for achieving genuine education for all.
7
Understanding the current state of Nigeria’s education system Ron Tuck & Kayode Sanni
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
2: Understanding the current state of Nigeria’s education system
Ron Tuck & Kayode Sanni
About the author
Ron Tuck and Kayode Sanni
are the National Programme
Manager and Deputy National
Programme
Manager
(respectively)
of
DFIDs
Education Sector Support
Programme
in
Nigeria
(ESSPIN). This article has
been produced from a paper
he presented at the 2011
Future By Us Education
Summit held at the Nigerian
High Commission from 9 – 11
February 2011
It is often stated that between 8 to 9 million school aged
children in Nigeria are not in school; the highest anywhere
in the world. The bigger and more pervasive problem
however, is that a large proportion of those who do attend
school, do not learn very much.
Evidence from Monitoring Learning Achievement studies
carried out in 1996 and 2003 and more recently a study by
Johnson, Hsieh and Onibon (2007) on learning outcomes of
children in Primary Grades 4 and 6 in Kwara, Kaduna and
Kano States, shows that Nigerian children consistently
underachieve in terms of their numeracy and literacy skills.
Many factors contribute to this underachievement, for example;
lack of textbooks, poor learning environment, over‐crowded
classrooms and so on, but the major factor, if only by
inference, is the teachers’ lack of ability to deliver the
curriculum.
Even more recently, a study conducted under the DFID
Education State Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) has
produced similar results (Holbrook, Dec 2010). Tests were
constructed in English and Mathematics, covering all major
topics indicated, and based upon the Nigerian Educational
Research & Development Council (NERDC) curriculum.
Children in public schools under performed in almost every
aspect of mathematics across all 5 states, and only children in
Kwara private schools attained reasonable scores.
ESSPIN also conducted extensive testing of teachers these
same States. These tests were also based upon the Grade 4,
NERDC curriculum. The table below shows the overall scores
achieved in these tests (English and Maths combined) in each
of 5 states.
As can be seen from the table below, barely 1% of teachers
were able to score above 80%, but more tellingly 42% of
teachers fall into Band D (less than 40%). The only conclusion
that can be drawn from the above data is that children in
Nigeria are not learning; and in many cases, their teachers are
not equipped to support their development.
On the face of the above data, the temptation would be to
engage in a massive training exercise for teachers across
Nigeria. While this might help, its impact would be severely
limited by the systemic problems that have led to this situation
in the first place.
These problems can be usefully classified into three broad
areas: Governance, Quality and Finance.
8
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Table 2.1 Overall Teacher Test Scores
OVERALL TEST SCORES
State 1
State 2
State 3
State 4
State 5
Level of Proficiency
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
Level A (80% - 100)
75
0.4
17
0.07
0
0
0
0
1
0.06
Level B (60% - 79%)
3,837
19.4
2,568
12.02
68
0.65
15
1.05
10
0.63
Level C (40% - 59%)
9,998
50.4
11,926
55.84
2,917
27.84
332
20.49
250
15.63
Level D (below 40%)
5,905
29.8
6,847
32.06
7,491
71.51
1,271
78.46
1,338
83.68
19,923
100.0
21,558
100.0
10,476
100.0
1,620
100.0
1,599
100
Total

Governance: Encompasses the values,
rules, institutions, and processes through
which people and organizations attempt
to work towards common objectives,
make decisions, generate authority and
legitimacy, and exercise power.
‘Governance’ is not the same as
‘government’; it is much broader and
operates at all levels of society. For
example, even at the school and
community level there are (or should be)
governance structures, but in Nigeria
these do not effectively exist at the
moment.
Ideally school governance
should involve the local community. In
most states, communities are asked to
help support schools with resources, but
are not involved in decision making
processes.
Inadequate governance structures not
only result in increased transaction costs,
but more seriously they can increase
exposure to corruption and interest-group
capture, thereby distorting the decisionmaking process, and reducing the
efficiency and quality of education
services. Furthermore, if we recognise
that the only purpose of any education
administration is to ensure that schools
are enabled to deliver an acceptable
standard of education, then the question
is whether the administration in Nigeria is
indeed delivering this. The evidence is
that this is not the case.
Head teachers and teachers are not well
trained, their performance is not
monitored, buildings and classrooms are
dilapidated, maintenance does not occur,
resources are not available and funding
to schools is almost non-existent.
A particular example of poor governance
is examination malpractice, which is
generally
acknowledged
to
be
widespread in Nigeria. Efforts to curb
such practices have been notable only by
their failure to do so. Even hard evidence
or estimates of how endemic it is, have
not been attempted.

Quality: The provision of an acceptable
quality of education depends upon many
factors including good teaching, strong
leadership and management, a safe,
secure
and
conducive
learning
environment,
sufficient
resources
(furniture, equipment, textbooks, writing
materials, learning aids etc.), adequate
quality assurance through inspection,
adequate accountability, an appropriate
curriculum and fair and transparent
means of assessment.
Yet in Nigeria, few schools could be
judged to be conducive learning
environments in terms of their physical
structures, and many are unsafe.
Resources,
whether
furniture
or
textbooks, are in most places sadly
lacking, although various initiatives
produce local improvements from time to
time. The primary school curriculum
contains 13 subjects, yet children are
often barely able to read or write, and the
examinations system is heavily weighted
towards those likely to proceed to
university, and provides no useful
measure for the vast majority who are
unlikely to pursue further education and
will need to find employment. There have
been recent moves to improve the
relevance of school inspections and
make this more consistent across the
country, but this is still at an early stage
9
and the cost of expanding this so that all
schools are regularly monitored will be
significant. While it is clear that a lack of
subject and pedagogical skills is a major
contributor to the poor quality of learning,
the underlying reasons for this are
twofold;
a) Firstly, the Colleges of Education do
not actually prepare teachers to teach
in primary schools, and the National
Certificate of Education (NCE) is
actually used by more than half of
students (the better half) as an entry
to university or to gain employment in
better paid jobs outside teaching.
Courses at these colleges include
political science, chemistry, physics
etc, but not literacy, numeracy or
primary science. This explains why
teachers are ill prepared.
b) Secondly, teachers are not posted to
schools based upon the needs of the
schools, and once in post, their
performance is not monitored. Nor
does their performance form a basis
for promotion, which in turn is not
linked to responsibility or function. A
striking observation from ESSPIN’s
research is that low fee paying private
schools appear to do better than state
schools despite the fact that on the
whole, their teachers are less
qualified. This is almost certainly due
to the fact that such schools have
rudimentary levels of performance
management – even if it is only to
make sure that teachers are in their
classrooms and teaching.
Figure 2.1: Funding Structure for Universal Basic Education –
Recurrent Expenditure
 Finance: It is stating the obvious that
education cannot take place without
adequate funding, and improvements
cannot be made without additional funds.
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
However, more money is not in itself a
solution. Underlying the lack of funds is a
much more fundamental problem of how
funds are allocated, managed, distributed
and spent; a situation made even worse by
the complexity of the funding mechanisms in
Nigeria. Within each and every state in
Nigeria there are two separate funding flows,
which in the most part are independent of
each other;
The first are funds allocated from the State
Consolidated Funds.
In principle Local
Government Authorities receive funds directly
from the Federated account, but in practice
these are often high jacked at higher levels.
From these funds, both the State
Ministry and the Local Government Councils
must cover their own costs and overheads,
once this is done, this leaves little, if
anything, to pass on to schools.
Figure 2.2 Funding structure of Universal Basic
Education – Capital Expenditure
The second and more significant proportion
of funding for primary and junior secondary
schools comes from the Universal Basic
Education Fund administered by the
Universal Basic Education Commission
(UBEC), and State Universal Basic Education
Boards (SUBEBs). Figures 1 and 2 above
show how this works both for Capital and
Recurrent expenditure. These diagrams are
included mainly to demonstrate the problems
inherent in such a complex system; the
reader is not expected to understand them.
Few if any people fully understand how this
system works, and that in itself creates a lack
of transparency. At best this leads to poor
administration of such funds, and at worst it
provides opportunity for misappropriation.
Such a complex system also leads to
10
inefficiencies,
overlap
and
lack
of
coordination in passing the funds through the
various levels.
The third problem is that administration costs
account for the bulk of education funding, so
that all that remains for schools is a trickle. A
typical school/community is powerless in
such a system, has no say in the decisions
taken on its behalf and does not even know
what it should or can expect.
There are other problems also associated
with these financial mechanisms. Until
recently, many states were unable or
unwilling to overcome the various barriers
necessary to access such funds from UBEC,
with the result that in 2010 NGN 40-50 billion
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
was sitting in a Federal bank account
unspent.
This situation has now eased but there is still
as much as NGN 35 billion un-accessed.
This is at a time when every Naira is
desperately needed. At the state level there
is a further problem in that, despite the
copious and admirable amount of planning
and production of strategic plans, budgets do
not match the priorities set out in these plans.
Worse still, as a consequence of unrealistic
budgets and/or the wielding of discretionary
powers, funds are often released so late that
planned activities cannot be completed.
11
Making Nigeria’s Education System Work: A 10 Step Integrated Framework for
Education Reform John Martin
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
3: Making Nigeria’s Education System Work: A 10 Step Integrated
Framework for Education Reform
John Martin
About the author
John Martin is the former
National Programme Manager
of the DFID Education Sector
Support Programme in Nigeria
(ESSPIN).
This
article
has
been
produced from a paper he
presented at the 2011 Future
By Us Education Summit held
at
the
Nigerian
High
Commission from 9 – 11
February 2011
The problems facing Nigeria’s education system are deep
and pervasive, but not unsolvable. It is important to
recognize that the challenges are interconnected, and
addressing them one at a time is not likely to make much more
than a very small difference.
Better training of teachers for instance is necessary but unless
schools are better managed; resourced and monitored, such
training is likely to be wasted. The scale of the task is such
that no individual or group of individuals is likely to be able to
solve all these problems alone. Rather, it will require a
concerted effort by a critical mass of both public education
administrators and non-government actors to turn this situation
around.
Figure 3.1 Conceptual Framework for Quality Improvement in Schools
Education delivery in schools must be the ultimate target of
any reform process as schools, not ministries are where
children learn. The conceptual diagram shown in figure 1
below serves to demonstrate that there are two sets of factors
to be dealt with; a) those which take place within the school;
and b) those which contribute to the supporting environment in
which the school exists.
To create successful schools, each and every one of the
factors listed in figure 3.1 must be addressed, but at different
levels and by different people. The much needed reform in
Nigeria’s public education system is about creating the
environment in which such issues can be tackled by the
relevant people.
12
Part of the solution is in fact finding ways to
involve a large cross section of education
stakeholders, and ensure that they are all
working in the same direction and to the
same end. This requires a general framework
within which everyone can work, such as the
10 steps to reform process presented below,
which is not so rigid as to stultify individual
initiatives and effort.
Figure 3.2: 10 Steps to reform
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
at both the Federal and state level. Secondly
there is often no continuity between the
vision as developed by one Minister and that
of the next.
In the time available, the
ownership of such a vision has not really
taken root outside of the Federal or State
Ministries of Education in which they were
developed, and usually stops through a lack
of political will. It is worth noting however
that for the first time, the current Minister of
Education picked up the plans of the previous
Minister and has continued to build on these.
More significantly however, the vision does
not succeed because it is only a first step,
and necessary next steps to implement the
vision rarely take place.
Also, there is often a disconnect between
Federal and State Ministries of Education;
this is reflected in the Federal Government’s
inability to persuade states to comply with
federal policies. States regularly produce
their own plans which tend to fail for similar
reasons.
These steps (figure 3.2) have been
developed over the past four years through
ESSPIN’s work with the Ministries of
Education of six Nigerian states. In each
state, the approaches differ in their detail, but
are similar in principle. Not all have been
completed and indeed some of the more
politically difficult reforms have yet to begin.
Nevertheless there is a sense of direction in
these states, and increasing numbers of
stakeholders are becoming involved.
1.
Develop a Common Vision and Plan
This is the necessary first step. It provides
the means with which large numbers of
stakeholders can become involved, define
and work towards a common goal. Ironically,
this has repeatedly been done, many times
over in Nigeria. The question then is why
none of the previous efforts have ever
resulted in significant success despite all the
good intentions and ideas contained within
them, and the hard work which went into
producing them.
A part of the answer lies in the fact that
political appointments change frequently; this
provides incumbents with insufficient time to
implement such plans within their, and occurs
In particular most plans, whether at federal or
state level, are not properly linked to budgets,
or indeed to reform of other systems required
to deliver such plans. These are truly difficult
things to change and require a great deal of
political will and leadership at the highest
levels to accomplish.
2.
Reform financial processes
In the 6 states currently working in
partnership with DFID’s ESSPIN project,
serious attempts have been made to produce
not only an overall vision for education and a
strategic plan but the next step has been
taken to produce detailed annual operational
plans, which are accurately costed and feed
into the annual budget process. However,
while the first part of this process has been
reasonably successful, carrying out the
necessary financial reforms is proving highly
problematic. Current budgeting systems are
linked to departments rather than activity,
and are incremental in nature. They are also
prone to last minute political decisions and
even when the budgets have been agreed,
the release of funds is often so late in the
year that it is too late to carry out many
activities. Large proportions of such budgets
are of course allocated to recurrent spending
such as salaries; as such the funds available
to spend on other important aspects are
therefore limited.
13
Changing this style of budgeting to reflect a
set of prioritised activities, and making
financial systems work to release funds when
needed is extremely difficult because in
principle this would require a change in the
process across other sectors, not just in
education. In states such as Kwara and
Jigawa, some progress has been made by
mapping funds to activity within the existing
system, but in other states this problem has
been intractable. What is clear is that, if
there is to be real progress, this is a problem
that is absolutely essential to solve.
3.
Increase
School
Funding
and
Resourcing
A part of any reform of financial systems
should be a consideration of where funds are
allocated and spent. In Nigeria, the funding
mechanisms are very centralised so that
school and communities have very little say
over how funds are allocated or spent on
them, if at all. There is a strong argument to
be made for a much greater devolution of
funding
to
lower
levels,
i.e.
that
schools/communities are given more direct
funding and are given responsibility for at
least a proportion of their own spending.
Clearly, accountability is a consideration in
such a devolved system but the evidence
suggests that not only is there a greater level
of transparency (because communities know
what they are entitled to), but schools
themselves achieve much better value for
money when they control their spending.
This was certainly the case in the World Bank
SESP, in which schools were given grants to
spend on themselves and in which there
were many examples of things costing less
because of community involvement.
4.
Create better governance structures
Government agencies responsible for
education need to make governance
functions more transparent, accessible,
efficient and effective. Over and above this,
decision making should be decentralised to
lower levels or indeed devolved outside of
government systems to schools and local
communities. There is indeed evidence from
many places, not least in Nigeria itself, that
when communities become involved in the
governance of their local schools, the levels
of accountability increase, and this eventually
leads to better educational outcomes. In
Nigeria,
School
Based
Management
Committees (SBMCs) have been created by
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
dictate across the country, but in many
states, these are not yet functional bodies. In
a number of states however, their role has
been developed in greater detail and there
are anecdotal signs that this is bringing some
positive improvements, albeit it will be many
years before hard evidence as to their
efficacy can be produced and as already
indicated, this is only one of many factors
that is required to contribute to the overall
gains in performance across the system.
Even those SBMCs which have been set up
and are working reasonably well, have very
limited governance powers.
They are
expected to monitor and approve the school
budget, and some at least are active in
community monitoring and helping schools to
carry out self-assessment. However school
budgets are insignificant amounts so the
opportunity to initiate real improvements are
limited. Furthermore, SBMCs as yet, have
no role to play in the recruitment of either the
head teacher or teachers. Given that these
staff are the main determinants of a schools
success, and that existing recruitment and
deployment systems are clearly failing, this
greater level of community governance might
well be a consideration for the future.
5.
Improve the Management of Schools
Closely linked to the issue of school
governance is the management of schools,
and in particular, the capacity, selection and
training of head teachers. All available
research on school performance indicates
that the head teacher is the key figure in this.
At the moment the procedures for selecting
head teachers in Nigeria are inconsistent, not
based upon merit and do not involve
communities (through SBMCs) in the
selection process. The rewards for being a
head teacher are relatively small compared
with elsewhere. Typically in UK a head
teacher might expect to earn 3 to 5 times the
salary of a beginning teacher, whereas in
Nigeria it is barely twice the salary, and most
of this is due to increases given through
years of service, rather than for being given
additional responsibility based upon good
performance. New head teachers are not
given any special training, need no additional
qualification nor are they well prepared for
their new roles.
Once in post the
performance of their school is not monitored
nor by implication is their own performance
evaluated, so that it is rare for them to be
removed from post if they do not do the job
14
well. Since they in turn have little say over
the posting of teachers to their school, have
few powers to discipline poor teachers, and
have few resources to actually manage, it
would be difficult to measure and make valid
judgment on their performance in any case.
Clearly the solutions to this problem lie first of
all in better selection and training processes
for head teachers. However, closely aligned
to this, and to allow them to manage their
school properly, there also needs to be a
proper devolution of decision making to head
teachers, greater accountability by them to
their communities, more control over
resources, and increased incentives to
become a successful head teacher.
6.
Better Teacher Training
In Nigeria there are federal as well as state
funded Colleges of Education, all of which
are supposed to produce teachers for the
primary and junior secondary level. They do
not. Their curricula are not aligned to the
primary curriculum, they carry out very little
pedagogical training, and few if any of their
lecturers themselves have experience at
teaching at the primary or junior secondary
level. Up to 70% of the graduates of some
CoEs never enter the teaching profession.
Recently the National Commission for
Colleges of Education (NCCE) has
introduced measures to try to deal with this
problem, including a revised and more
relevant curriculum framework for CoEs, a
set of minimum standards for teachers, and a
system of quality assurance. However this on
its own is an enormous reform task. Not only
does it require staff of CoEs to train students
in content with which they are themselves
unfamiliar, it also requires that colleges
themselves undergo a major restructuring
exercise to match their departments and staff
to the new curriculum areas. Given that there
are more than 100 such colleges this is likely
to take considerable finance and several
years to achieve, if impetus is not lost in the
meantime.
Beyond this, as demonstrated by the Teacher
proficiency tests carried out in the 6 ESSPIN
states, practicing teachers already in the
profession are in serious need of remedial
retraining, and this has not even been
contemplated as yet. Indeed it is unlikely that
the funds or capacity to carry out such a vast
exercise meaningfully would ever be
available and the most likely solution would
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
be one of local support from LGEAs and selfsupport groups within schools. Better
management of teachers’ performance and
more materials which give direct guidance
are likely to pay even better dividends.
7.
Improved Teacher Deployment and
Employment
While many states have pupil:teacher ratios
which are in principle quite reasonable, this
masks an enormous amount of variation from
school to school and from rural to urban
areas. In some schools, classes can be as
small as 5 or 6 pupils, whereas in others they
can be up to 200. Nor are the teaching staff
well matched to school needs or the
curriculum, so that teachers are often
teaching in areas where they themselves are
weak, or refuse to teach what they perceive
to be outside their subject. With 13 subjects
on the primary curriculum and some primary
schools which have grown to enormous
proportions - one school in Kano for example,
has more than 11,000 students; this presents
a considerable logistical problem, and results
in great inefficiencies.
Even more
importantly, such large institutions cannot
possibly create a conducive atmosphere in
which young children can learn and develop
as individuals. The solution to this is a
complete rethink of the way in which teachers
are employed and deployed and for schools
(i.e. communities and head teachers) to be
given much more say in such matters.
Beyond this however, there is a problem in
the structure of the teaching profession in
that promotion and incentives are not linked
either to performance or responsibility. In
practice however, in Nigeria, throughout their
careers, teachers work through a set of
employment grades. The progression from
one grade to the next is not based strongly
upon their performance and most often their
head teachers have no involvement with the
decision. The process is almost automatic
but in any case carries very little additional
reward. Neither do these grades appear to
be directly linked to roles and responsibilities
within the school so that a promotion is not
linked to a specific role. There is a need for
restructuring of teachers career paths to link
promotion and incentives much more strongly
to performance. The irony is that in recent
years, teachers have been given substantial
salary increases, but the opportunity to link
these to performance and responsibility has
not been taken.
15
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
8.
Political Will
Unless those with power want to improve
matters, nothing will change. Therefore,
education reform has to be a political priority.
Technical
system
improvements
are
necessary, but not sufficient to bring about
improvements. Some of the proposed steps
included in this list require significant political
will; reforming teachers career structures for
instance. The current political legitimization
of incentives do not favour providing service
improvements.
What is needed is an
adjustment to the balance of political
advantage.
9.
Accountability at all levels
To counteract the lack of accountability in the
system, there is a need to provide
information, stimulate debate and raise public
expectations for better quality services.
There is currently surprisingly little informed
academic or press debate on education and
little pressure from private sector employers
for raising educational standards. There are
two ways to create greater transparency. Ex
ante
transparency
aims
to
inform
stakeholders in advance that specific funds
or resources are to be applied – e.g. school
budgets should be allocated and made
public. Ex post transparency provides
information after expenditure and is aimed at
empowering stakeholders to confirm that
their entitlements were met – e.g. publication
of school accounts.
Schools themselves also need to be
accountable for their performance but this
can only come as a counterweight to
increased devolution of decision making and
funding. i.e. more the authority schools are
given over their own resources the more
accountable they should become.
10.
Partnerships
providers
with
Non-government
All of the above concerns the public
education system, and how this can be
significantly reformed and improved to deliver
a much better service to Nigeria’s children. It
should be noted however that several parallel
systems of education service delivery have
grown up in Nigeria. In Lagos for instance
several estimates put the number of children
in low fee paying private schools at up to
70%, and growing. These schools are often
in a worse physical condition than public
schools, use untrained teachers and also
have few resources. While there is as yet no
clear evidence that they produce better
results than public schools, they certainly do
no worse, and many parents clearly see them
as offering something worth paying for. There
are signs that this pattern is repeating itself
throughout the country, and more and more
children are attending such schools.
Additionally there are many Quranic schools
in the northern states of Nigeria which do not
rely on state funding but are also now
beginning to offer secular education,
encouraged by state ministries, as well as
their Quranic education.
In the absence of a much better state
provision of education, this non-governmental
provision is likely to continue to grow even
without active support or intervention from
government. However, there is an argument
that government could actively encourage the
growth of this sector alongside of its own
provision. Such a partnership might involve
government support and funding, in return for
a willingness to meet basic standards and/or
to offer places to the poorest children. One
advantage of such an initiative is that the
government is no longer the service provider
for education, but it still provides investment
and through this can demand accountability.
16
A conceptual framework for promoting transparency and tackling corruption in Nigeria’s
public education system Wale Samuel
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
4: A conceptual framework for promoting transparency and tackling
corruption in Nigeria’s public education system
Wale Samuel
About the author
Wale Samuel is a World Bank
Consultant and the former
Policy Advisor at the Civil
Society Action Coalition on
Education for All. This article
adapted from a paper he
submitted at the 2011 Future
By Us Education Summit,
convened by His Excellency
Ambassador Dozie Nwanna
OON
The impact of corruption on social service delivery has
been widely covered in literature, particularly in the
context of the African political system. Corruption places
huge burdens on the poor and limits their access to social
services like good quality education.
The Drafting Committee of the World Education Forum has
noted that "corruption is a major drain on the effective use of
resources for education and should therefore be curbed’.
According to the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention
on Corruption; ‘corruption threatens the rule of law, democracy
and human rights, undermines good governance, fairness and
social justice, distorts competition, hinders economic
development and endangers the stability of democratic
institutions and the moral foundations of society’. In the
Nigerian context, corruption is a huge threat to the fundamental
right to free compulsory quality education.
Impact of Poor Resource Management in the Nigerian
Education Sector
No serious public sector reform with the objective of improving
governance can be effective if it does not start with education.
This is vitally important in Nigeria’s context as the Goodluck
administration fast approaches the 2015 elections and four
years of the government’s Transformation Agenda.
In spite of the importance of education and the significant
resources, both human and financial that goes into it, the
evidence on ground in Nigeria reveals that scant attention has
been given to the issue of corruption.
In Nigeria, poor funding and resource mobilisation, and
corruption consistently lead to unpaid teacher salaries,
degradation of education facilities at all levels and strikes in
universities and schools. The end result is poor quality,
declining literacy rates and the increasing levels of interest in
education, particularly among Nigeria’s poor.
According to the Nigeria’s 2005 Millennium Development
Goals Report, literacy levels in Nigeria have steadily and
gradually deteriorated, especially within the 15-24 years
demographic, a poor indicator of the prospects for the next
generation. By 1999, the overall literacy rate had declined to
64.1 % from 71.9 % in 1991. This downward trend was
experienced by both males and females aged 15-24. Among
males, the rate declined from 81.35 % in 1991 to 69.8 % in
1999. For females the decline was from 62.49 % to 59.3 %
during the same period.
17
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Attempts
by
President
Obasanjo’s
administration to address the situation led to
the launch of the Universal Basic Education
Programme (UBE) in 1999, in a bold step to
increase much needed investment in the
education sector and to provide free and
compulsory quality basic education for every
Nigerian child. The UBE Programme was
enacted as law through the UBE Act (2004)
and legislates for the provision of funding
from block grants in Federal allocations,
which are intended to match contributions to
state financing of primary education of not
less than 2% of the Consolidated Revenue
Fund from the Federal Government. States
are expected to contribute not less than 50%
of total cost of projects as matching funds to
qualify for UBE grants.
Despite the significant budget allocations by
the Federal Government to support the 36
states and the Federal Capital Territory, with
an estimated 8 - 9 million out of school,
access to basic quality education continues
to elude millions of Nigerian children.
Perhaps an even greater challenge is that the
learning achievement of those fortunate
enough to be in school remains abysmally
low. This in turn reduces the relevance and
perceived value of time spent schooling,
particular amongst Nigeria’s poor, who would
rather have their children help with household
chores, or help augment their meager
incomes.
Outright embezzlements, contract inflation
and diversion of funds, especially at the state
government level continue to reduce the
social return from Nigeria’s education
funding.
The rot stems right from the very top of the
political class. For example, in 2008, six
states misappropriated NGN 4b (£16m)
Universal Basic Education (UBE) funds which
was part of the NGN 54.78b (£219.12m)
allocation representing two per cent of the
consolidated revenue fund given to the
Universal Basic Education Commission
(UBEC) by the Federal Government in 2005
and 2006.
Despite this gross violation, no one has been
held accountable and no proper attention has
been given to address the problem of
effective utilization of resources in the sector.
It is therefore a matter of immense urgency to
embrace greater levels of accountability and
transparency in the management of
resources
system.
in
Nigeria’s
public
education
Promoting Transparency & Accountability
Transparency has been defined by Hallak
and Poisson (2007) as ‘the extent to which
stakeholders - Head Teachers, School
Management Committees, pupils and
communities, can understand the basis on
which educational resources (financial,
material and human resources) are allocated
to their individual establishment and how
these are used.’
It follows that the concept of transparency in
resource allocation can be evaluated on the
basis of, visibility, predictability and
understandability of resource flows within the
system. As such, if we are to promote
transparency and tackle corruption in
Nigeria’s education system, state and federal
government
agencies
responsible
for
education will need to be persuaded to
ensure the timely availability of funding data,
timely disbursement of allocations, and clear
lines of accountability. They also need to be
persuaded to prioritize the need to keep
stakeholders engaged and informed, as well
as the need for a competent trained civil
society.
Accountability goes hand in hand with
transparency. It is therefore important to
ensure there are clear guidelines on areas of
responsibility, and clear consequences,
which once established, are indiscriminately
enforced for fraud, poor performance and
other breaches of trust.
Practically speaking, delivery-minded state
and federal education authorities in Nigeria
should start with the following steps:
1. Ensure and enforce compliance with the
Public Procurement Act (2007): This was
designed to stamp out corruption by
creating a transparent, competitive
process that mitigates the negative
effects of cronyism and nepotism, which
result in corruption, waste and low social
return on education funding.
2. Fund and build the capacity of nascent
School Based Management Committees
(SBMCs), which enable the community to
support Head Teachers in school
management and planning.
3. Involve the community in school
management via SBMCs, while actively
18
building their capacities to hold service
providers accountable.
4. Create a level playing ground for Civil
Society engagement in education delivery
through the implementation of the Public
Procurement Act (2007) in the education
sector.
5. Government agencies should seriously
consider financing civil society action
aimed at facilitating inclusive community
participation and feedback to further
enhance community ownership.
6.
7.
Establish and institutionalise Civil
Society driven Community Accountability
and Transparency Initiatives that will
monitor
resource
allocation,
disbursement and utilisation at the local
government and school levels.
Improve
downward
and
upward
accountability in the utilization of
education
intervention
funds
in
community schools thereby enhancing
infrastructural development at the local
level.
8.
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Use media campaign and other grass
root initiatives, which could include
successful high profile prosecutions to
increase state and national level
awareness
of
the
dangers
of
mismanagement of public funds.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Corruption and Human Rights: Making the Connection, 2009.
International Council on Human right Policy
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2005), Nigeria Millennium
Development Goals 2005 Report. Abuja, The National
Planning Commission
Hallak
and
Poisson
(2006)
’Governance
in
education:transparency
and
accountability
.UNESCO
publishing
Hallak and Poisson (2007) ‘corrupt schools, corrupt
universities: What can be done? UNESCO Publishing.
Issues in Public Procurement in Nigeria, the legislative
challenge (2007).CISLAC
Nigeria National Economic Empowerment and Development
Strategy. Abuja, National Planning Commission. P. 34
Obanya 2006, ‘Upstream and Downstream considerations in
enhancing education service delivery’.
Towards Implementation of Community Accountability and
Transparency Initiative (CATI), CSACEFA 2006
19
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
What can public schools learn from private schools to improve
learning outcomes in Nigeria? Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, PhD
5: What can public schools learn from private schools
to improve learning outcomes in Nigeria?
Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, PhD
About the author
Dr Modupe Adefeso-Olateju is
the CEO of The Education
Partnership
Centre
(TEP
Centre), and a co-founder of
the Every Nigerian Child
Project.
Non-state provision of education in Nigeria has grown
exponentially in the last two decades; with conservative
estimates suggesting that over 15% of the school-going
population is served by the non-state sector.
In Lagos State, this figure is dramatically higher with over 70%
of enrolment share going to the private sector. The data shows
that there is a small but significant learning advantage to
attending private schools.
Below is a diagram of Saunders eight domains of school
effectiveness. By conducting interviews with both public and
private school teachers, it was found that private schools were
perceived to perform better than public schools in all eight
domains. This article reports the findings and presents the key
lessons public schools can learn from private schools in
Nigeria.
Figure 5.1: Domains of School effectiveness
Source: (Saunders, 2000: 4)
1. Physical environment:
The location of a school and its infrastructural and resource
composition can either facilitate or impede learning. It was
found that resource provision and infrastructural development
were more adequate in private schools than in public schools.
Library facilities were also found to be severely lacking in
public schools as compared with private schools.
20
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
2. Curriculum assessment:
The curriculum, is a nationally established
range of academic objectives that guides the
process of teaching such that the location of
each child within a learning continuum is
mapped. In Nigeria, teacher competence in
assessing the curriculum is deemed low. In a
recent study, it was found that only 30% of
teachers had received in-service training on
assessment whilst only 56% had received
training on how to carry out formative
assessment during their pre-service training.
However, private schools often teach beyond
the set curriculum, with many private school
teachers finding the national curriculum
unchallenging. It thus emerged from the data,
that private school teachers have both the
‘agency’ and motivation to set higher
curriculum goals.
one teacher explained, ‘most of us don’t want
our colleagues to know our weaknesses so
we rather skip [the topic].’
4. School Leadership, Internal Organisation &
Culture:
Leadership is a critical component in the
structure of any organisation. The importance
of school leadership to the establishment and
maintenance of both climate and critical
school-level functions has been established
both in developed and developing country
contexts.
Concerning the autonomy of public school
leaders to discipline teachers, it appeared
that head teachers were powerless to
effecting change due to institutional
bureaucracy. This was not the case in private
schools. The following claim was made1:
‘In government school they will think that
okay let me just come and go, and at the end
of the month I will have my salary, but in a
private school the owner of the school will
monitor the teachers and they will work for
every penny.’
5.
The wellbeing,
motivation of all pupils:
3. Teacher Supply, Training & professional
development:
The role of the teacher as a facilitator of the
learning process is key. Being taught by
competent and motivated teachers for a
continuous number of years can make up for
pupils’ socioeconomic disadvantages.
The general acknowledgement was that
teachers in public schools have academic
qualifications that often surpass those of
private school teachers. However, the much
larger class sizes in public schools were
perceived to reduce the effectiveness of
these better qualified public school teachers.
Both private and public schools suffer from
teacher inadequacy, with a shortage in
subject-specific teachers.
For example,
teachers who specialised in Maths could also
be called upon to teach the sciences due to a
shortage in staff. However, in private schools,
there was often collaboration between
teachers to make up for individual
inadequacies whereas in public schools, as
attendance,
and
This is a critical component of school
effectiveness because learners are the
central focus of the educational process. One
of the findings was that there are significant
distinctions in the wellbeing and motivation of
pupils depending on whom they live with.
Living with guardians, was perceived to have
an adverse effect on a child, as he or she
would be forced to run errands at home
instead of focusing on schoolwork. For
children that live with biological parents,
distinctions were made between educated
and uneducated parents. The general
perception was that better educated parents
create enhanced learning opportunities for
their children.
The impressions and expectations that
teachers have of their pupils were also
explored. Public school pupils were typically
referred to in negative terms such as
‘wretched’, ‘miscreants’, ‘thugs’, ‘from bad
homes’, and ‘don’t value education’. Private
school pupils on the other hand were serially
1
It is probable that teacher perceptions of head teacher
agency are not wholly accurate; however the fact that teachers
hold these views is indicative of challenges pertaining to
accountability in the system
21
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
regarded in positive light and described with
terms such as ‘serious’, ‘respectful’, ‘children
from good homes’, ‘children that value
education’, and ‘of high intelligence’.
It was found that the culturally based
gendered
stereotyping
was
prevalent
amongst public school teachers. For
example, public school teachers perceived
girls as having superior ability in English,
whilst boys were constructed as possessing
low ability in the subject. Interestingly,
although public and private schools in our
sample operate within the same sociocultural
context, private school staff did not genderstereotype pupils; highlighting a more
equitable approach and equal levels of
expectation of both genders. The implication
of the perpetuation of gendered constructs in
public schools is that pupils may develop
negative attitudes towards the subject for
which there is low expectation of them.
6.
Partnerships between parents and
community:
It was found that in private schools, parental
input in school level decision-making is highly
valued. Parents are involved not only in
aspects of school governance, but also in
shaping curricular and extra-curricular
activities. Discussions with public school staff
however
revealed
condescending
perceptions towards parents; attitudes which
appeared to be based on a mental construct
that due to socioeconomic disadvantage,
public school parents were unmotivated,
uncaring and uninterested in their children’s
progress.
year. Within the private sector as well, there
was a severe lack of external quality
assurance mechanisms, with private schools
rarely being inspected or quality assured.
However, parallel internal processes were
reported to be in place in private schools,
with lines of responsibility shared by the
heads of departments and principals.
Lessons from the private sector
•
•
•
•
•
•
7.
Accountability
mechanisms
and
processes:
The data suggests that private schools in
Nigeria possess the ability to respond more
effectively to the needs and demands of
families whilst public schools, due to their
centrally funded bureaucracy, have limited
ability to institute initiatives that directly
promote learning.
8.
Quality assurance:
This emphasizes the need to maintain
requisite or stipulated levels of quality in the
school system. In the public school system,
internal and external quality assessment
systems are virtually non-existent, with a
public school teacher admitting that her
school had not been inspected in almost a
Private schools on average feature more
manageable class sizes and better
access to instructional materials.
Formative assessments appear to be
integrated with the curriculum, such that
learner progress can be mapped and
supported over time.
School leaders possess a high level of
autonomy and are able to leverage to
facilitate teacher accountability and
school-level innovation.
Direct accountability to families results in
responsiveness to the learner needs and
preferences, and parents who feel like
valued stakeholders in the teaching and
learning process.
Like the public sector, private schools
sometimes face severe shortages in
teacher supply. Nevertheless, there is a
prevalent attitude in the private sector
which prioritises learner needs and
ensures that subjects are not left
untaught. In the face of weak State
quality assurance systems, private
schools ensure that minimum standards
of quality in teaching and learning are
delivered.
The culture of teacher collaboration and
peer support observable in the private
sector is worth emulating.
Thus an effective way of improving the
quality of public schools is by drawing
lessons from the best practices of private
schools. However, within the public sector,
the decision to embark on school
improvement efforts through learning from
effective practices of the private sector is
largely dependent on the will to initiate and
sustain reform at sector level, the
commitment of teachers to improving
learning outcomes, and the involvement and
support of other key stakeholders such as
parents.
22
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
A roadmap for Education Transformation in Nigeria Bunmi Lawson
6: A roadmap for Education Transformation in Nigeria
Bunmi Lawson
About the author
This
document
is
the
combined effort of Nigerian
youths
and
senior
professionals
working
in
various sectors of the Nigerian
economy. Contributors include
The Future Project, Paradigm
Initiative Nigeria, Do More for
Nigeria
Learner outcomes from Nigeria’s education system are at
an all-time low; and without intervention, they present a
ticking time bomb that could seriously impede the
development of Africa’s most populous country.
In 2009, only 1 in 4 Nigerians obtained a credit pass (50% or
better) in Mathematics and English Language from the West
Africa Examination Council (WAEC) examinations, while 98 in
every 100 who sat for the 2009 November/December National
Examinations Council (NECO) exams failed to clinch the
minimum five credits (including English Language and
Mathematics) necessary to achieve a pass.
Things are no better at the primary level. At 30%, the national
mean scores from Nigeria’s primary schools were ranked
lowest in an international study of learning achievements
across 22 countries in Africa commissioned by the World Bank.
Causal factors
This disastrous decline in Nigeria’s education system was not
achieved overnight; and has been triggered and sustained by
the following reasons, which are generally well understood:
a. Financial mismanagement, corruption and bureaucratic
complexity.
b. Constitutional complexity which results in multiple
agencies with overlapping responsibilities, finger
pointing and little or no accountability.
c. Poor curriculum, teaching methods and poverty have
led many parents and learners to question the
relevance of education in Nigeria as it is delivered
today.
d. The quality and motivation of teachers, and teaching is
abysmal.
e. Poor and inadequate infrastructure and learning
resources
f. Warped values have introduced corruption to the
classroom.
g. The influence of politics and policy instability has been
damaging to education.
Nigerian graduates are unemployable
The next generation is largely illiterate and under-skilled.
According to a previous Central Bank Governor, “71 per cent of
Nigerian graduates like bad cherries won’t be picked by any
employer because they are not fit for anything even if they
were the only ones that put themselves forward for an
employment test”.
23
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Where are the leaders, managers, engineers,
doctors, craftsmen and artisans of the future?
Who is going to be working when this
generation is old? Concrete efforts and
solutions are required. It is not simply a
matter of awarding multi-million Naira
contracts for providing furniture, a perfunctory
increase in budget, education summits
without new ideas and formats, or superficial
competitions.
There has to be a comprehensive strategy
that engages the problem from its many
different angles and the strategy has to be
sustained. Above all else, it has to be
outcome-oriented. Below are some solutions
to address this state of emergency in
education.
Possible Solutions
The role of Teachers is at the heart of a good
education system. The most important
interaction in any educational system is what
goes on in the classroom between the
teacher and the learner. Therefore, any
solutions must be geared towards enhancing
this interaction.
The Mckinsey & Co. 2007 Report on The
World’s Best Performing School Systems
highlights three key solutions that can
drastically improve a country’s educational
system, two of which focus on Teachers:
1.
2.
3.
We must get the right people to become
Teachers: As an educational system
cannot rise above the level of its
teachers, we must recruit from the best
graduates people who also possess
strong motivational and communication
skills.
We must continuously develop Teachers
to become effective instructors through
rigorous professional development.
We must put in place mechanisms to
ensure that schools deliver high quality
instruction to every learner. The system
must be held accountable and rigorously
tested and measured.
Therefore, any solutions must focus primarily
on Teaching and Accountability.
The
following are required in order to achieve this


A credible living wage must be instituted
for teachers.
Teachers should earn enough to live on
and should be paid on time. State
governments must be held accountable
for this.

• Ongoing teacher training must be
institutionalised.
Practically speaking,
1. The Teachers Registration Council of
Nigeria should be restructured into an
institute capable of re-training and
administering accreditation examinations
(much like the Institute of Chartered
Accountants of Nigeria).
2. All teachers in Nigeria must go through
specified
Continuous
Professional
Development (CPD) each year to be reaccredited as teachers.
3. An emergency plan must be put into
place to attract volunteer teachers and
retain existing ones.
4. A Teachers Volunteer Programme must
be set up to attract individuals who wish
to give up a few months to go into
schools to teach. A fund should be set
up to defray the administrative and
logistical expenses.
5. The National Youth Service Corps should
be repurposed for 3-5 years to focus on
education. Corpers should sign up to
teach and the 3-week orientation
programme should no longer be used for
frog jumps and endurance treks. Instead,
corpers should be taken through teacher
training modules in priority subject areas.
6. A competition should be held to identify
teachers who are well regarded and
voted effective by students in public
secondary schools. These teachers
should become national role models, be
co-opted to train other teachers (in a
restructured
Teachers
Registration
Council of Nigeria) and should be
rewarded.
7. A national award should be given to
volunteer teachers who sign up for an
appreciable amount of time as well as
existing role model teachers. The award
should be endorsed by and could include
dinner with the President.
8. Financial mismanagement in education
should be stopped. The States are
responsible for funding basic and
secondary education as well as their
state owned tertiary institutions. They
receive funding from the Federal
Government as well as internally
generated funds. A system must be put in
place to ensure that the monies
generated
go
towards
school
infrastructure, and teachers’ pay.
24
9. Therefore,
there
should
be
an
independent poll on teachers’ pay and
the production of photographic evidence
of school infrastructure in each state on
an annual basis. The Federal Ministry’s
Operation Reach All Secondary Schools
(ORASS) was a good initiative in this
area. It should be continued and
extended to primary and tertiary
institutions.
10. Funding policy must also be streamlined
to provide greater levels of transparency,
clarity and accountability of financial
flows.
11. A League Table of exam success rates
in WAEC & NECO should be published
annually. The Table should show the
results for each State and each school
(public & private). In doing so, the public
will be informed of how each school is
faring and whether public taxes are
simply going down the drain or being
effective. This serves the twin purpose
of transparency and keeping these
schools and their authorities on their
toes. The League Table should show
how much each State receives from the
Federal Government vis-a-vis the
number of students they cater to and the
students’ success rate.
That way,
Nigerians will know the spend-per-child
and how effective the spend-per-child is.
The table may be published in
conjunction with WAEC, NECO and an
independent Audit Firm. Schools must
be held accountable for students’ results.
12. Parents should be free to choose a
desired school based on the school’s
performance on the published “League
Table”. Schools will then receive the
bulk of their funding from the government
based on the number of students that
willingly enrol in the schools.
13. Parents may also be given a tax credit if
they choose to send their kids to public
primary or secondary schools.
14. In
5
years,
non-performing/noncompetitive schools on the League Table
should be penalised.
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
15. Schools must also be properly licensed
and monitored to ensure high standards.
Monitoring
must
be
above-board,
independent, thorough and devoid of
corrupt practices.
16. Education should be made an election
issue & priority for the next administration.
The electorate should reject any candidate
(or political party) that does not make
education a critical part of their manifesto.
Education must be brought to the forefront
of any electoral debate.
17. Complementary institutions to Universities
must be promoted to meet the excess
demand for tertiary education. In 2004, it
was reported that Nigerian Universities
could only cater to 15% of those who
applied. Today, it is reported that Nigeria’s
public Universities can cater to 65% of
applicants, notwithstanding that in some
cases a class designed for 40 students
accommodates 400.
18. In view of this low carrying capacity, we
advocate that the Vocational Enterprise
Institutes (VEIs) & Innovative Enterprise
Institutes (IEIs) initiatives as set up by the
Federal Ministry of Education should be
promoted as credible alternatives to
Universities.
VEIs and IEIs provide
certificates in specialised vocational and
technical fields.
19. Champions must be identified and
promoted to raise the interest in and brand
profile of these certificates, thereby driving
up enrolment. Examples of potential
champions include Downtown Beauty
Academy (an existing VEI) and the
accreditation of the Lady Mechanic
Workshop as an IEI.
We do acknowledge that many credible
solutions have already been prescribed for
revamping Nigeria’s educational sector and
we respect the efforts of those who have
gone before us. However, we must question
why the solutions are not being implemented
or proving effective, in the belief that
questions raise solutions.
25
Improving Nigeria’s Education System – The role of individuals and NGOs
Dr Moses Adi
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
7: Improving Nigeria’s Education System – The role of individuals and
NGOs
Dr Moses Adi
About the author
Dr Moses Adi is the President
of the Divine Seed Academy,
and an independent Security
Consultant.
This report is
adapted from the full paper
By Us Education Summit.
Until recently, government has largely been responsible
for the provision of education in Nigeria, with very minimal
involvement of the private sector.
Public funding of education includes direct government
expenditures for teacher’s salaries, classrooms and
instructional materials, as well indirect expenditures in the form
of subsidies to households such as tax reductions,
scholarships, loans and grants. It also includes payments from
the Education Trust Fund (ETF), which exists mainly for capital
expenditures. Yet public funding for education has not kept
pace with the rise in demand, and this we must accept is at the
core of the systemic degradation of Nigeria’s education
system. This is not news.
The decline of Nigeria’s education system
The decline of Nigeria’s education system can be traced to the
era of military rule. Nigeria launched the Universal Primary
Education (UPE) in 1976, which enshrined in law the
government’s obligation to provide Nigerian citizens with
access to free compulsory primary level education. This failed
due to lack of funds, which was largely attributable to
corruption, political instability which resulted in policy flip flops
and non-execution of stated commitments.
In 1999, following the end of over 30 years of military rule,
President Olusegun Obasanjo launched another mass-oriented
education program – the Universal Basic Education, and
publicly stated during the launch of the program in Sokoto that
the nation "cannot afford to fail this time around." Not long
after that, however, the federal government reported that the
falling standard of education in Nigeria at the time was caused
by "acute shortage of qualified teachers at the primary school
level."
As far back as 2001, it was reported that about 23 per cent of
the over 400,000 teachers employed in the nation's primary
schools did not possess the Teachers' Grade Two Certificate,
even though the National Certificate of Education (NCE) was
the minimum educational requirement to teach in primary
schools (Ogbeifum and Olisa; The Vanguard Online, July 1,
2001).
Recently, a Nigerian, Adetoye Oremosu, won the 2010 United
Nations citizens Award for a video that highlighted the gaps in
Nigeria’s education system. His video focused on village
schools. His key point was that Secondary school students
were not necessarily better than the primary school pupils.
Though they had passed through the primary school system,
26
Dr Moses Adi
which is meant to prepare them with the key
skills to cope with a broader range of
subjects at the secondary level; secondary
level students found it difficult to cope with
the level of work as they had been
inadequately prepared. Notwithstanding this,
they manage to sail through the system by
resorting to exam malpractices, and end up
no better equipped than they were when they
left primary school.
13 years into the re-emergence of democracy
in Nigeria, the nation’s educational system is
in a complete shambles. Teachers and
university professors practically beg to be
paid their meagre salaries, labour unrests are
frequently prompted by non-payment of
salaries. And there is the lack of investment
in physical infrastructure, teacher training and
instructional materials which undermine the
conduciveness of the learning environment,
and learner outcomes that cause many to
challenge the relevance and value of
education, especially amongst Nigeria’s poor.
Where did it all go wrong?
The decline in Nigeria’s education system
can be traced to the clear lack of sincere
appreciation for the strategic importance that
should be placed on education from the very
top, which has trickled down and manifests in
the rot we now see at every level of Nigeria’s
education system.
The genesis of this travesty can be traced
back to 1986 when universities were shut
down by the military government for a year.
This was closely followed by the ‘brain drain’
era when some of Nigeria’s best Professors
left the country for greener pastures and
ushered in an era of greed and indiscipline.
The lecturers who remained began producing
and selling hand outs to supplement their
meagre incomes. These hand outs were not
only sold at exorbitant rates; they were
compulsory,
and
determined
whether
students would pass or fail. Hand outs have
now been abolished, but lecturers have
devised other ways to achieve the same
objectives.
Soon, the practice of ‘certificates for sale’
became rampant.
Students could get
through university without ever having to
prepare or sit for examinations, and emerge
with a ‘good’ degree classification.
At the secondary school levels, the
emergence of ‘miracle centres’ – where
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
candidates contribute to pay teachers and
invigilators to coach them through the school
leaving certificate exams taken at designated
centres have demonstrated a graduation in
the decay in the education system that
completely undermines the entire system.
It is a sad state of affairs. The challenge is
immense as the rot has infested every level
and component of Nigeria’s education
system, and is sadly, a reflection of society
as a whole.
In effect, a child can get through Nigeria’s
education system, achieve good grades and
emerge with a ‘good’ degree without knowing
any more than she knew at primary school.
As hopeless as the situation may seem, we
must understand however, that the central
challenge
remains
that
of
poverty,
inadequate resources, poor management
and utilisation of available resources, and a
lack
of
sincere
appreciation
(and
commitment) of the strategic importance of
education
in
social
and
economic
development by those saddled with the
responsibility of shaping, funding and
delivering public education in Nigeria. These
are solvable problems.
Why is civil society involvement in
education important?
The resource challenges observed in
Nigeria’s education will not be resolved by
government alone:



It will take teachers, parents, private
sector organisations working together
with those responsible for Nigeria’s
public education system to effect the
changes that are critical to rebuilding
Nigeria’s education system.
It will take more than well-intentioned
criticism and political rhetoric to change
the status quo.
Things have been bad for so long, with
series after series of failed rescue
27
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Dr Moses Adi

initiatives that many well-intentioned
public education administrators need to
be ‘shown’ how they can leverage their
positions and the resources within their
control to effect the changes the system
desperately needs.
It will take ‘model schools’ that are
adequately resourced, efficiently run,
that
consistently
deliver
quality
education which is accessible to
Nigeria’s poor, to prove that it can be
done.
That is why the founders of Living Seed
Divine Academy, have built a model low fee
private school that demonstrates excellence
in all facets and at all levels.
It is about having a clear vision and
demonstrating a commitment to use what you
have to make a difference to as many young
lives that available resources can support.
Living Seeds Divine Academy currently
provides affordable quality education to about
800 students in primary and junior secondary
school. In years to come, they intend to build
on this commendable start.
“For us, our commitment to affordable
quality education starts from the
recruitment of teachers, learning
assistants and support workers,
prompt payment of salaries, design of
school curriculum and teaching
methods, and provision of school
infrastructure including classrooms,
vehicles, uniforms, teaching aids,
laboratories, etc. In all we do, our
goal is to prove that you can deliver
the highest and best quality
education at the lowest possible cost
to learners, while being renowned for
prompt payment of staff salaries.”
REFERENCES
Copenhagen Consensus. htm (2004). Copenhagen
Consensus Challenge #4: Access to Education
presented by: Great Danes.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) National Policy on
Education. Lagos: NERDC.
African Journal of Education and Developmental
Studies. Vol. 6, No. 1, September, 2009
The Nation NewsPaper of 21 October 2010
Department for International Development (2005).
Sustainable Development Approach Guidance Sheet 2.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques (trans. by Betts). The Social
Contract; Oxford University Press, 1994; p. 14; p. 80.
Decree 16 (1985). Education national minimum
standards
and
establishment
of
institutions,
Supplement q (official gazette extraordinary, 72 (13).
Aghenta, J.A. (2006). Human resource development
and planning in Nigeria. Second faculty of education
distinguished lecture series, University of Benin, Benin
City
Bollag, Burton. Nigerian Universities Start to Recover
From Years of Violence, Corruption, and Neglect, The
Chronicle of Higher Education, February 1, 2002, A40A42.
28
How individuals and NGOs can contribute to rebuilding Nigeria’s education system
Dr David Ogbueli
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
8: How individuals and NGOs can contribute to rebuilding Nigeria’s
education system
Dr David Ogbueli
About the author
Dr David Ogbueli is the
President of the Golden Heart
Foundation.
This report is
adapted from the full paper
By Us Education Summit.
Quality education is part of every Nigerian’s constitutional
and fundamental human rights.
Education improves the productivity of learners, and not only
benefits the person being taught, but also society at large.
Researchers have found that schooling not only empowers
individuals, but enables them to become more responsible
citizens and make better informed decisions, including issues
concerning their health, welfare and security. It also makes
them more active participants in governance and in the
democratic process. It therefore follows that an investment in
education is not only an investment in human capital
development, but also a worthy investment in the future of our
society.
The root of the crises in Nigerian education
Western-style education came with the Christian missionaries
in the mid-nineteenth century. By the 1950s, Nigeria had
developed a three-tiered system of primary, secondary, and
higher education.
By 1960, the time of political independence, Nigeria had gone
through a decade of exceptional educational growth. In the
North for instance, primary school enrolments went from
66,000 in 1947 to 206,000 in 1957. In the West, it grew from
240,000 to 983,000 and in the East from 320,000 to 1,209,000
in the same period.
Secondary level enrolments went from 10,000 for the country
as a whole in 1947 to 36,000 in 1957 – with, of course, some
regional variations.
It is remarkable to note that during this period, the graduates of
these institutions were of very high quality, perhaps
comparable to any anywhere in the world. This growth in
quantity and quality continued until the early 1980s, when the
collapse in oil prices led to the introduction of the Structural
Adjustment Programme (SAP), which triggered sharp
reductions in spending on education. And that was where our
problems began.
From the 1980s till now, the situation has gone from bad to
worse. According to the Nigeria Millennium Development
Goals 2009 report,

Literacy levels in the country has steadily and gradually
deteriorated, especially within the 15-24 years group.
By 1999, the overall literacy rate had declined to 64.1
% from 71.9 % in 1991.
29
Dr David Ogbueli

The statistics also indicate glaring
imbalances against girls in enrolment,
attendance and completion rates in all
levels of education in Nigeria,
particularly in the northern parts of the
country, due to a variety of sociocultural inclinations.
Further Statistics show that:



Federal government expenditure on
education between 1997 and 2000 has
been below 10% of overall expenditure
as against the UNESCO recommendation
of 26% of national budgets. Note also
that the national expenditure on
education cannot be computed because
various states expenditure on education
cannot be determined.
In National Examination Council (NECO)
examinations,
November/December
2009, only 1.8 per cent of the candidates
who sat for the examination passed with
five credits and above, including English
and Mathematics – the necessary
requirement for gaining admission into
university.
Joint Admission Matriculation Board
Exam (JAMB) 2010 recorded a 41%
Pass.

National Examination Council (NECO)
2010 recorded a 44.8% Pass

West African Examination Council
(WAEC) 2010 recorded a 20.04% Pass!

In 2009, there were 1,276,795 applicants
who sat for the JAMB UTME exams, but
all the universities in Nigeria put together
only have the capacity for 270,000
candidates.

A Federal Ministry of Education statistics
shows that 85% of Nigerian graduates
are unemployable, primarily because they
do not have the required skills, and are
therefore not globally competitive.
This is far from an exhaustive list, but makes
the point that despite all government is doing
to improve Nigeria’s education; governments
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
efforts alone will not bring the change we
seek.
Individuals
and
non-government
organisations can contribute to rebuilding
Nigeria’s education in the following ways:
1. By setting up skills acquisition centres
with a City & Guilds-type of certification.
2. Instituting a scholarship scheme for bright
and intelligent students across the
country.
3. Provide funding assistance to schools
through
endowment
funds
and
sponsoring of chairs.
4. Development of alternative
methods and curricula.
teaching
5. Volunteering to serve as temporary
teachers, guides and counselors in our
public schools.
6. Policy advocacy activities for greater and
more visionary government involvement.
7. Adopting various public schools and
providing the needed assistance (e.g
infrastructure, academic staff, reading
materials etc) for improved quality
education.
Golden Heart Foundation Case Study
The Golden Heart Foundation is a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) with a
unique mandate to raise young and dynamic
leaders that will be agents of National
Transformation.
We major on; value-reorientation, leadership
education,
youth
empowerment
and
entrepreneurial development.
Our goal is to equip young people across the
country with the right value system,
leadership abilities, skills and social posture,
so they can put them to use in transforming
the Nation. We offer young people guidance,
mentorship and the enhancement of their
self-worth.
The impact of these efforts
encourages us to scale up and reach out to
even more beneficiaries.
30
Dr David Ogbueli
We believe every Nigerian has an inherent
potential to do great things that will influence
Nigeria positively, hence Nigeria can
actualize the vision 20:2020 only when the
youths are empowered with knowledge, skills
and right values to take up their daily
challenges
In all we do, we seek to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Model the right leadership path for the
next generation
Raise a new generation of value driven
leaders within our society
Help Nigerian youths discover, develop
and deploy their gifting for personal and
societal benefit.
Provide Leadership education: training
the Heart (character), Head (intellect)
and Hands (skills)
Promote
patriotism
and
national
integration
Promote ‘grass root’ enlightenment and
development
The Golden Heart Foundation was
established on the understanding that a
nation is only as strong as its people and
their value system. We believe that the
greatest driver for National Transformation is
inculcating the spirit of patriotism, respect for
moral and ethical values in Nigerian youths
and that every Nigerian youth has what it
takes to make a difference in the society. The
challenge of change, in all the developed
Nations, has always been spearheaded by
the youth. With our current population of 150
million consisting of a 70% youth
composition, the youth are indeed the hope
of the New Nigeria.
But unfortunately, Over 70% of the recent
graduates in the urban areas are
unemployed and this has lead to the increase
in crime, kidnapping, illegal exploitation and
dehumanization. Most of these graduates
have the capacity to turn the course of the
nation around if equipped with the right
values, skills and an enabling environment
(due platforms).
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Hence the Golden Heart Foundation is fully
committed to equipping the Nigerian youth
with the tools that will make for our rapid
societal transformation, engender tribal and
religious co-existence, and move us further
away from an unenviable pariah status we
inherited, to a Nigeria that is indeed the Heart
of Africa.
Our approach and strategy
GHF’s approach to nation building and
transformation is an all encompassing
approach through Training, Information,
Mentorship and Research.
We have an array of projects, professionally
designed to equip the youths in different
areas according to their passion or area of
interest. This would aid the exploration and
development of different spheres of society,
thereby promoting a diversified economy.
The projects focus on both personal and
national transformation in the different
spheres of the society.
Programmes & Projects

Project YOUTHLEAD: is committed to the
promotion and sustenance of integral and
holistic human development. YouthLEAD
which means Leadership, Employability,
Accountability and Development seeks to
arrest the slide by informing, educating
and empowering the youths of our great
nation. It will imbibe in our youths most
especially those in the tertiary institutions,
timeless values like the culture of hard
work,
servant
leadership,
entrepreneurship,
employability
and
excellence in service thereby restoring
lost values in our society.

DESTINY: Developing Entrepreneurial
Skills That Impact Nigerian Youths
(DESTINY). The vastness of Nigeria's
wealth is overwhelming, and it is
imperative to tap into the resources
available for exploitation. About two-thirds
(2/3) of Nigerian people are poor despite
living in a country with vast potential
wealth. With the abundant human and
31
Dr David Ogbueli
natural resources, if well harnessed,
Nigeria can be one of the leading States
in the world. The economy will only grow
when there are many informed and
empowered small and medium scale
entrepreneurs driving it. DESTINY thus
is aimed at training and empower many
aspiring young entrepreneurs within our
society to drive the economy of a
Transformed Nation by increasing the
number of value-based skillful and
patriotic youths.



Project
Changemakers:
Project
Changemakers is dedicated to ensuring
sustainable community transformation
and growth in Nigeria through the
effective
utilization
of
available
indigenous
human
and
material
resources. We believe strongly in the
strategic strength of the youths in
pioneering
sustainable
community
transformation and growth, that is why we
focus more on the youths as our core
transformation
vehicles
within
communities,
without
necessarily
neglecting other strata of community
populations. (with pictures of projects)
ONEYOUTH-ONESKILL: This project set
out to address unemployment and
underemployment early in a young
person’s life which often impair their
entrepreneurial and job prospects as
adults. Getting the right foothold in the
labour market either as a producer or
service provider is, therefore, critical not
only for “ personal success” but also has
a multiplier effect on the nations GDP.
The programme ”One Youth One Skill”
therefore seeks to further provide values
reorientation
and
skill
acquisition
necessary to redress the present ethical,
nonproductive and values quagmire in
Nigeria, starting from the younger
generations.
RE-AWAKENING (WAEC CLINIC): The
consistent
downward
trend
in
examination performance by students
has continuously generated concern
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
among stakeholders which has lead to
renewed call for a permanent solution to
this menace. However the recent
pronouncement by WAEC that “83% of
the total student population that sat for
the May/June 2008 WASSCE failed to
obtain the mandatory five credit passes
and above in five subjects” has brought
the gravity of the situation to fore.
RE-AWAKENING, thus is a Free CORE
SUBJECTS clinic designed in response
to the need for civil society to contribute
towards stakeholders efforts at averting
the disaster looming in the education
sector
in
regards
to
students
performance in their recent examinations
especially at the O’ levels. The general
objective of this initiative is to contribute
to academic excellence and improved
academic performance of WASSEC
/GCE students and by extension quality
of students being admitted to our tertiary
institutions.

Executive Leadership Programme: This
package is designed for leaders in
various
institutions
and
systems
anchoring
on
Transformational
Leadership
and
Total
Quality
Management.

National Youth Summit: This is an annual
event that attracts thousands of Nigerian
Youth from all states and regions of the
nation for the purpose of instilling in them
the National vision and modeling the right
leadership path that will lead to National
Transformation.
The program majors on vision casting,
providing positive direction to youths
while emphasizing on the fundamental
values and practice that ensures both
personal and national transformation.
The National youth summit is a one week
intensive training programme that is
targeted:
- At promoting behavioral change and
building the leadership Capacity of the
Nigerian Youth, enabling them the
32
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Dr David Ogbueli
ability to contribute positively to the
current transformation of our nation.
- To address the current economic
trends and teach them the cardinal
principles of wealth creation, moving
them to aid in the building of the
nation’s business climate, from
ground floor up.
- To encourage the shunning of
anything determined to cut short our
productive
years,
like
youth
restiveness, militancy, cultism, and
the scourge of HIV and AIDS,
amongst others.
- The 2010 summit played host to more
than 60,000 youth leaders drawn from
all the geo-political zones of Nigeria.
The Future
Our goal is to impact, equip, mentor, train
and fully mobilize 1.5 million Nigerian youth
by the year 2030, who will be deployed to the
various sectors of the Nigerian society to
provide the required leadership and become
agents of transformation.
We are currently training and mentoring
10,000 monthly in various training centres
across the country.



We believe in the future of our great
nation.
We believe Nigeria will be the pride of
Africa.
We believe that by the year 2030,
Nigeria will take her rightful place in
the community of Nations.
It can be done. It will be done. It’s already
being done.
33
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
The Finnish Education System – Lessons for Nigeria: Alero Ayida-Otobo
9: The Finnish Education System – Lessons for Nigeria
Alero Ayida-Otobo
About the author
Alero Ayida-Otobo is the
coordinator of the Education
Reform Team and CEO
Incubator Africa Limited, a
development
agency that
partners with delivery-minded
governments and agencies
responsible for managing
education and health systems
to improve and transform
schools and primary health
centres by building their
capacity to transform their
operations
and
achieve
measurable outcomes.
A dynamic group of 8 members of the Education Reform
Team (ERT), set out from Nigeria and the United Kingdom
in April 2012 on a 5-day learning journey to Finland. Some
of whom returned two weeks later with representatives
from Cross River State, a state at the fore-front of change
in Nigeria. Two Learning Journeys to the same country in
three weeks. Why? You may ask.
Well, ‘Finland Works!’ This is the title of an insightful book that
captures the substance, spirit and character of the Finnish.
Their education system works.
The book uses certain key words to describe the system –
‘equity’; ‘quality’; ‘efficiency’ and one of our favorites, ‘no deadends’. The educational system gives equal opportunity to
every child and adult to develop their potential and become all
they are capable of being.
The word ‘equity’ rings through the education plans for most
countries. It is at the centre of the United Nations Global
Campaign on “Education for All”; but it is in Finland that we
have seen the true implementation of this vision and aspiration.
Every child regardless of place of birth – urban or rural, social
status, race, creed or nationality – once you live in Finland, you
have undeniable and unfettered access to quality education.
This for us was a key takeaway; the implementation of
education as a basic human right for all.
Learners are educated in their own time, according to their
unique development potential. Children have the right to learn
in the way that best appeals to their learning styles in a
qualitative environment. We have discovered that it is this
exceptional quality education that made Finland the number
one in international comparisons.
The 5-Day Learning Journey is a learning experience with a
difference. You feel the heart of the nation – their commitment
to life-long learning, the professionalism and passion of the
teachers; the excellent content of the curriculum; the unique
delivery of guidance and counseling in schools; the excellent
management of schools by school leadership, and the joy in
the classroom of the children who thrive in a child-centred
environment.
Bolaji Osime, CEO of Global International College and member
of the Education Reform Team (ERT) aptly described what we
saw as “an extraordinary and innovative educational system”.
While Professor Owan-Enoh, a government official from Cross
River State, observed that “Finland is the first country I have
come across that has turned all the theories I have learnt into
reality”.
34
Another ERT member, Folasade Adefisayo, a
director with Corona Schools in a profound
and reflective manner said;
“for me, the Finnish experience was a
paradigm-changing and epochal event in
my life. I am not using hyperboles for the
sake of using these words but I need to
explain myself. Before I went to Finland, I
was of the school that believed in testing
and rewarding teachers according to the
performance of their students. I have
done a 360 degree turnaround. I still
believe that testing is essential, but I
believe that we should do more formative
rather than summative (exams and end of
period tests).
Formative assessments
would involve the quality of the teacherstudent interaction made evident in the
questions asked by both, reflection on
learning and progress, team work and
collaboration and a general belief in equity
and the right of every child to receive a
good education. I still believe that we
really need to train and re-skill our
teachers. The content of their training will
now be key”.
Teacher Education
So what did we learn about teacher
education that was so impactful? In a
nutshell, the emphasis in Finland is on
creating the environment that enables
learning to take place in the classroom;
especially as it relates to empowering the
teacher who is at the centre of children’s
learning experience.
Coming from a country where teachers are
not highly regarded or adequately motivated
and rewarded, there are some very key
qualities of the experience of teachers in
Finland that immediately strike you as
unique:
Firstly, the undeniable desire and passion for
well qualified, intelligent people to be
teachers. Teaching is the no 1 profession,
rather than doctors, engineers or lawyers.
Secondly, the competition for places is stiff. A
case in point is Jyvaskyla University; with
over 2,800 applications for 80 places.
This is the complete reverse of Nigeria where
several Colleges of Education do not have
enough applications from interested students
and many come into education as a last
resort because they could not get onto any
other university-level course.
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
In Finland, teachers have strong academic
qualifications with the minimum qualification
being a Masters degree (except at the Early
Childhood level). The minimum qualification
in Nigeria is the National Certificate of
Education (NCE) which is lower than a first
degree.
Finland has built world class teacher
education programs, and teachers are
reasonably well paid; but the real
distinguishing factor “is that teachers in
Finland are empowered to exercise their
professional knowledge and judgment both
widely and freely in their schools. They
control curriculum, student assessment,
school
improvement,
and
community
involvement”.
Many are drawn to the
profession by its “compelling societal mission
and its condition of autonomy and support”i.
Another major learning point as observed by
Olusola Adeola is the
“'Professionalization' of every career path
and lifelong learning. We learned that every
vocation and career has become a
profession, from the cook in a restaurant, to
the professor in a university. Every job has
an education path. This speaks to close
collaboration between the job market and
the education system, which is also a
reflection of the collaborative nature of the
system”.
Imo Oyewole a HR Specialist, reflecting on
her experience declared that,
“One of the highlights of the tour was
visiting the 'World Skills Competition'
where I saw a demonstration of
excellence in action both on the part of the
organizers and the participants and where
the atmosphere was charged with the
feeling of satisfaction! Students satisfied
with their choices, and for having been
well taught! Employers satisfied with the
prospect of employable workers. And
because theirs is a system of life-long
learning, this satisfaction can only be
temporary as improvements and upgrades
must continue in every sphere and
dimension”.
This is Vocational Education at its very best.
Another quality worth mentioning is what
Olusola Adeola so eloquently described
as “how the Finnish education system
reflects the needs, culture and value
system of the Finns. This is inspiring me
35
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
to dream about what a Nigerian education
system would look like. What are our
strengths and values as Nigeria? How do
we draw from our diversity, our history and
our people?
How do we design an
education system, applying similar
principles but reflecting a Nigerian
education; one that would attract
foreigners to Nigeria to understudy the
Nigerian education system? This is one of
our tasks as reformers”.
Our dream for Nigeria as summarized by
Toju Chike-Obi,
“is that the Education Reform Team can
implement what we learned in Finland so
that equitable access to quality education
is guaranteed for every child”.
Abby Olufeyimi summarizes most beautifully
our views on the Finnish Educational system.
“The system works for the Child... for it is
child centered. This is a nation that
values her children. The child is an
individual and valued as one.
It works for the drop out, even those who
are at the margin of society, and simply
drop out of the system are followed up
and encouraged to re-integrate because
they have value. And because they have
value, there is something they can still
contribute and something to benefit from.
The door is always open, they have
access.
According to Imo Oyewole,
“the Finns decided 30 years ago to
embark on a journey to reform their
education sector with the child at the
center of their vision, they committed to
changing whatever was required to be
changed (from laws, policies, methods to
infrastructure), and now Finland has
become the Jerusalem to which the world
flocks in order to glean from their
remarkable success story. Because of
their selflessness, not seeking personal
gains applaud or recognition, they were
able to lay out long term plans and were
satisfied with taking small but calculated
steps towards the overall goal of
developing an education system that
serves the development needs of every
Finnish child”.
It works for the teacher; who from the
moment she starts the application process
to train to become a professional, is
valued, and takes on the challenge of
becoming a life-long learner.
It works because there are no DEAD
ENDS. It works because government has
made education its priority, and has
devolved 'power' to the municipals,
schools, teachers and students. Finland’s
education system works because from
working together trust has been built and
so it works for all. It did not always work,
and this transformation did not happen
overnight. It was a 30 year journey of
working, re-working and discovery.”
That is the uniqueness of the System
described by Catherine Bickersteth as
“the
beautiful
Education”.
tapestry
of
Finnish
36
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
The Every Nigerian Child Project: Olajumoke B. Bamigboye
10: The Every Nigerian Child Project
Olajumoke B. Bamigboye
About the author
Olajumoke Bamigboye is the
Managing Partner at
Fibonacci Investment
Consultants, CEO of
Hěveneiress and a co-founder
of the Every Nigerian Child
Project.
In January 2011, a small group of UK based professionals
came together with a single vision; to create an effective
and sustainable collaboration platform upon which
various stakeholders can work to significantly improve
Nigeria’s Education system over the next 10 years.
The journey began in December 2010, following the Joint
Parliamentary Roundtable discussion convened by the All
Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) on ‘Education for All’ and
‘Nigeria’, on “Expanding Civil Society Engagement in Nigeria’s
Education Sector” in the British House of Commons attended
by representatives of the Nigerian High Commission, TY
Danjuma Foundation, Civil Society Action Coalition on
Education for All (CSACEFA), Results International, DFID, and
the World Changers Foundation.
The acting Nigeria High Commissioner, His Excellency
Ambassador Dozie Nwanna, challenged the Nigerian
delegates from TY Danjuma, CSACEFA and the World
Changers Foundation to work together to organize a summit to
be hosted by the Nigerian High Commission to discuss and
propose a roadmap for the development of Nigeria’s education
system. Thus, the Future By Us Education summit was birthed.
In February 2011, under the umbrella of this vision, the 3-day
Summit was convened by the Nigerian High Commission in
London with the support of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of
Education. The event brought together a wide range of expert
researchers, practitioners, ministry officials, civil society and
non-profit organisations and other key stakeholders in a
process designed to produce a framework and roadmap for all
those working to improve Nigeria’s education system over the
next 10 years.
The Summit was constituted to achieve the following
outcomes;

Firstly, to Identify and engage expert practitioners and
researchers in a collaborative and consultative process
to produce a robust framework for the sector.

Secondly, to highlight and collate existing best
practices, new and existing initiatives and seek to
increase the level of support and recognition necessary
to scale up the impact of non-state actors in this space.

Thirdly, to create an environment in which education
enthusiasts can gain practical knowledge useful for
contributing to new and existing efforts to improve the
sector.

Fourthly, to develop a pragmatic view of the role
government can play in creating an enabling
environment to enhance the impact of non-state actors.
37
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
With over 160 participants from the UK and
Nigeria, the summit highlighted 5 key areas
of focus for the sector over the next decade.
These were to;





improve the quality of education;
increase
access
to
education,
especially for girls;
enhance the value and effectiveness
of funds invested in the sector;
establish an independent monitoring
and evaluation framework to report on
completed projects and progress in
the established roadmap.
lastly, to establish a policy advocacy
group that will research and highlight
best
practices,
offer
workable
solutions,
and
challenge
state
authorities to adopt and scale up
these initiatives whilst adhering to
their commitments.
knowledge, experience, resources and
know-how of diaspora and international
development partners.

The group exists to provide Monitoring &
Evaluation, Policy Advocacy, Human &
Organisation Capacity Building and
Impact investment in the Nigerian
education sector.

The core team includes Ms Akunna
Amadi, Dr Debisi Araba, Mr Gori Olusina
Daniel, Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya, Dr (Mrs)
Modupe
Adefeso-Olateju
and
Ms
Olajumoke B. Bamigboye.

In October 2011, the Every Nigerian Child
Project collaborated with Implementation
partners and the Federal Ministry of
Youth Development to host the 2011
National Youth Summit in Abuja.

In February 2012, ENCP partnered with
Golden Heart Foundation, RESULTS UK,
CSACEFA, Chief Segun Odegbami and
NASSCOM to lead a UK delegation of
MPs to Nigeria to review the
effectiveness of UK Aid in transforming
Nigeria’s education sector.

The Parliamentary delegation to Nigeria
was timed to coincide with the second 2day Future By Us Education summit,
chaired by Professor PAI Obanya, which
generously supported by the Federal
Ministry of Education and kindly hosted
Our Impact
 Following the summit, a detailed interim
summit report was submitted to the
Presidential
Taskforce
Team
on
Education in 2011.

An
inter-disciplinary
team
was
established to develop the framework
ahead of the 2012 summit to be held in
Nigeria. This team included a Sponsors
Board, Senior Advisory Board, Technical
Panel, Implementation Partners &
Programme Management team.

Some members of the Future By Us
group
were
co-opted
onto
the
Presidential
Taskforce
Team
on
Education (PTTE).

Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, former Kwara
State Commissioner for Education and
Future By Us panelist at the 2011 Future
By Us Summit was appointed Federal
Minister for Youth Development.

On the back of the 2011 Future By Us
summit, the Every Nigerian Child Project
(ENCP) was established to take forward
the recommendations from the summit.

Today, the Every Nigerian Child Project is
a diaspora-led education policy advocacy
group that blends the knowledge, skills,
networks and capacity of people and
organisations in Nigeria working to
improve the quality and effectiveness of
Nigeria’s education System, with the
38
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
by National University Commission (NUC)
Abuja.




The summit sought to consult more
widely on the FBU Interim report
submitted to the Presidential Taskforce
Team on Education in 2011, showcase
innovative projects that are positively
impacting the lives and development of
the next generation of Nigerians and
formally launch the activities of the Every
Nigerian Child Project in Nigeria.
The ENCP team worked with various
international and local organisations
including
ESSPIN,
Results
UK,
CSACEFA, Living Seed Academy, All
Party Parliamentary Group, NASSCOM,
Global Poverty Project and the Federal
Ministries of Education and Youth
Development amongst others.
Day 1 of the programme, a session
attended by the delegation of UK MPs,
covered various thematic areas including
“the state of the Nigerian education
system and what we can do about it”,
“Government’s role in Education”,
“Building
the
institutional
capacity
required to deliver quality education”
amongst others. Here, academic and field
research
collated
by
various
organisations and practitioners including
DFID’s ESSPIN, CSACEFA amongst
others, were presented.
Day 2 saw various non-profit and civil
society organisations showcase their
work through plenary session where best
practices were also shared. The day
provided a platform for networking and
soft drafting of avid participants into areas
where their skills and expertise can be
leveraged.

In 2013, the ENCP identified and
mobilized support for the Slum 2 School
project which is geared towards
supporting the enrolment and ongoing
support of children in the slums of
Makoko who otherwise would not be able
to attend school.

In March 2014 the ENCP was invited to
contribute to the 20th Nigeria Economic
Summit Group Session on Education,
which also served as the platform for
launching the inaugural edition of the
Nigeria Education Policy Review.
Going Forward
ENCP team remains committed to creating
an influential platform that enhances the
impact of the wide range of stakeholders
committed to ensuring every Nigerian child
goes to school and has access to good
quality education that will enable them to
make a positive contribution to society.
In 2014, in view of the upcoming elections
this years Future By Us Summit will focus on
establishing an accountability framework to
capture and communicate the state of
Nigeria’s education system, and the evidence
required to inform interventions that can
enable the wide range of actors to take
appropriate action to drive the sector forward.
39
2012 Future By Us Education Summit: Conference Summary Report Chris Maiyaki
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
2012 FUTURE BY US EDUCATION SUMMIT: Conference Summary
Report
Chris Maiyaki
About the author
Chris Maiyaki is the chief of
staff
to
the
Executive
Secretary National University
Commission. He was on the
Honorable
Minister’s
delegation to the 2011 Future
By Us Education Summit
convened by His Excellency
Ambassador Dozie Nwanna,
the former (Acting) High
Commissioner to the United
Kingdom
The National Universities Commission (NUC) hosted the
2012 Future By Us Education Summit and the launch of
the Every Nigerian Child Project in Nigeria with the theme
“What is the State of Nigeria’s Education System and What
Can We Do About It”, at the Idris Abdulkadir Auditorium,
Abuja on the 16th & 17th February 2012.
In her opening address, the Honorable Minister of Education
(HME), Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, OON, noted that
the summit was convened as a platform to pull together some
of the country’s most outstanding experts, thought leaders,
investors and practitioners in the education sector as well as
implementation partners, to review the current state of the
nation’s education system, showcase and highlight the
immense work done by non-state players, share best practices
and create solutions around the already identified gaps and
areas that require improvements, whilst charting an
implementation framework for monitoring and evaluating
interventions.
The Minister, represented by the Executive Secretary, NUC,
Professor Julius A. Okojie, OON, asserted that the “Every
Nigerian Child Project”, a Diaspora group of Nigerian
professionals, had worked tirelessly to organize the summit,
adding that their effort exemplified the passion that emerged
from good Nigerians working to ensure that the country’s
potentials were realized.
She said that education was pivotal and core to national
development, stressing that all aspects of empowerment and
capacity building initiated by the private sector and Civil
Society were needed as they had a recognized and
increasingly important role to play in developing a robust and
effective education offering.
The Honorable Minister acknowledged the previous efforts of
many groups and organizations to uplift the education sector
that had not been recognized, saying however that there still
existed significant work to be done. She submitted that nonstate actors must be invited and empowered to play a greater
role in the delivery of low cost and free education.
She highlighted the number of objectives and policy
attainments that could be charged to such willing groups to
include improving the quality of education offered through
assisting with provision of learning resources and
infrastructure, monitoring performance and creating learning
support programmes; improving access and equity through
policy advocacy, monitoring of state level access policy and
implementation;
40
2012 Future By Us Education Summit: Conference Summary Report Chris Maiyaki
and increasing the value and effectiveness of
funds invested in education through
advocacy for transparency and accountability
in funds management, allocation and
utilization.
Professor Rufa’i particularly called upon NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) to
ensure wider dissemination of information on
performance, best practices and continuous
improvement at the macro and micro levels.
On the part of government, she said that
education should be viewed not only as an
economic necessity, but also as a political
and moral obligation and to focus on
rebuilding the public education system as
according to her, it bridged the gulf between
access to education that exists in different
socioeconomic strata in Nigeria and ensured
equitable access to knowledge that
transcends class, gender and ethnic divides,
thus enabling the highest number of people
to attain their potentials. The Honorable
Minister stated that the policies of the
ministry were to continually ensure
improvements with a clearly defined and
communicated delineation of responsibilities
at all levels of government, effective
appropriation
and
management
of,
publication of data to ensure stakeholders
monitoring and evaluations.
She appealed to stakeholders to work with a
clear vision and goal, aim and forge united
front in ensuring that the future of the next
generation of Nigerians was secured and the
development needs of the nation’s children
and youths were catered for through the
provision of internationally competitive
standards of education.
In his own remarks, Professor Okojie
expressed delight at the summit, saying that
the education system at all levels in the
country was lamentable and advised that
stemming the tide would need responding to
the situation more proactively. He suggested
that cost-sharing should be explored as one
of the alternatives towards arresting the
situation for the future of education in Nigeria
to be guaranteed.
In his speech, the Director of Policy,
Planning, Research and Management
(DPPRM), Federal Ministry of Education
(FME), represented by Dr. (Mrs.) Lami
Amodu, said that the forum was quite timely
and supported the idea of effective education
delivery in Nigeria as enunciated in the
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Transformation Agenda of the present
administration. She averred that FME had
devised various strategies to address the
challenges of the sector that included the
Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector
and the One-Year Strategy Plan that
consolidated on the gains of the previous
Roadmaps of the ministry.
She listed the major challenges of the sector
to include poor quality of products, low
enrolment,
retention
and
transition,
inadequate funding, amongst others, noting
that it had necessitated the invitation of
private organizations and individuals to
partner in their various areas of competence
in education delivery.
Professor Pai Obanya, the Chairman of the
summit, in his welcome remarks, said that
the import of the event was to brainstorm and
articulate the sector’s challenges and proffer
solutions to same. The Summit featured
parallel break-out sessions and papers
including those of Professor Obanya
(Looking for Nigeria’s Abundant Human
Resources); the Programme Manager of
CSACEFA, Mr. Wale Samuel (A Presentation
of the Nigerian Education Data Survey), the
National Programme Manager, ESSPIN, Mr.
Ron Tuck (Transforming Nigeria’s SchoolsThe Integrated School Improvement Model),
amongst others.
The summit was supported by a wide range
of organisations such as Action Aid (Nigeria),
DFID ESSPIN, All Party Parliamentary Group
on Education for All (UK), Federal Ministry of
Education Department for Policy, Planning,
Research and Management, The Nigeria
Governors Forum, CSACEFA, Incubator
Africa Limited, Segun Odegbami Sports
Academy, Freedom Foundation, Golden
Heart Foundation, and attended by a wide
range of experts and professionals from
various organisations. NUC staff at the event
included Mr. A. S. Agbaoye (Deputy
Executive Secretary), Professor L. A. Bichi
(Director, Academic Standards), Arc. Bola A.
Balogun, (Ag. Director, Physical Planning),
Dr. S. B. Ramon-Yusuf (Ag. Director, Open
and Distance Education), Mr. Sam Onazi
(Ag. Director, Finance and Accounts) as well
as Professors C.O.E. Onwuliri and A.I.
Essien, both Visiting Professors in the
Commission and Mr. C. J. Maiyaki, Chief of
Staff to the Executive Secretary.
41
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
Conclusion: Rebuilding Nigeria’s Education System:
Policy Imperatives Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya
Conclusion: Rebuilding Nigeria’s Education System: Policy Imperatives
Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya
About the author
Dr Ifechukwu Nnatuanya is a
Director of DPI Associates Ltd
a
UK
based
specialist
Transformation practice. He is
a co-founder of the Every
In the early 1960’s the Republic of Korea (South Korea),
Singapore and Malaysia all had something in common
with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a newly independent
nation.
They were all relatively “young” countries whose education
systems where in a similar state (Gopinathan & Boon, 2006)
(Page, 1994) (Kpolovie & Obilor, 2013).
However if you were to compare statistics from that era it can
be clearly seen that:



They all had worse statistics than Nigeria in child
education
The government was heavily involved in the education
sector
GDP was smaller than that of the newly Independent
African country
Fast forward fifty years and the story could not be more
different. The statistics now show that:



The comparator countries now have better statistics in
child education
Their governments are is still heavily involved in the
education sector
Their GDP’s have all exceeded Nigeria’s
How has this situation transpired?
According to the OECD the most successful education
systems combine local autonomy for schools with strong public
accountability. These countries have found a way to turbo
charge their economies and societies off the back of highly
successful education systems. They have certainly followed up
on these two central themes of having a very strong public
accountability framework while allowing a certain degree of
autonomy within their local school networks.
As has been highlighted in this report, human capital is
projected to be the bed rock of a successful Nigerian economy.
And this is true of any economy.
Without improvements in the Nigerian education sector,
Nigeria’s economic promise would be near impossible to
achieve. We therefore need to harness the various policies
proffered, ideas suggested and energy being exerted at this
time by a variety of individuals and organisations to achieve a
single goal: Transform the Nigerian education sector in a
sustainable way to ensure it is once more fit for purpose and
serves to ensure “Every Nigerian child is afforded a basic
quality education”. This is the vision that drives the work of
the ENCP. This is the Raison d'être for its existence.
42
A new direction
Having participated in the last two Future by
Us Education Summits, I have seen my
views as well as that of other participants
evolve in a way that would have been almost
impossible to predict.
At the start of this journey in 2011, the vast
majority of participants and contributors laid
the blame for the state of the education
sector squarely at the feet of Nigerian
governments’.
It was very easy to hold the Government of
Nigeria at its various levels as being solely
responsible for the deterioration witnessed in
the education sector over four decades.
As such the natural conclusion proffered
which most participants subscribed to was
the exclusion of the Government from the
rescue mission required to this sector, which
is critical to the life, wellbeing, social mobility
and sustainable development of Nigerians.
Frankly speaking, we sought a reduction of
governments influence in a sector that
mattered so much, in favour of an increasing
influence and participation of a variety of
NGO's and private bodies who could step
forward to rescue the education sector from
the stranglehold of the Government of the
day.
It would transpire, as we listened to the
experts that this notion of a solution which
required a reduction in government influence
in the sector, flies squarely in the face of the
evidence and the reality of what it takes to
run an equitable and universally accessible
public schools system.
From the evidence presented, we came to
realise that there are three distinct roles the
government, and only the government can
play in successfully reforming Nigeria’s
education sector. Notably:
1) Creating an enabling policy environment.
In all societies (democratic or otherwise), the
Government of the day has sole
responsibility
for
the
creation
and
enforcement of laws.
Reforming the
education sector and addressing some of the
root causes of the decline in education will
involve the creation, modification and
scraping of a variety of policies. This will be
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
impossible without partnering
relevant arms of government.
with
the
2) Financial investment in infrastructure.
Education is an expensive business and only
those countries that invest in it (as referenced
by the developed world) reap the benefits
that can accrue to the nation. The last global
financial and economic crises proved yet
again that no corporation or grouping can
match the financial resources governments
possess and wield on behalf of their people.
3) Evidence from our sample country set.
South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia as well as
the emerging BRIC countries are living proof
of the effect of a targeted investment by a
nation’s government in their education sector.
How do we solve this problem?
The approach we need to take us back to the
proverbial promised land of having a basic
quality education available to every
Nigerian child regardless of ethnicity, creed
or religion lies in partnership between both
the state sector (Governments and
development agencies) and the non-state
sector (NGO's and other private sector
participants).
Following two highly successful summits, the
major policy imperatives identified from all
the discussions, papers and plenary
discussions can be summarised as follows:
1) Change the funding formula: Increase the
proportion of funding spent on delivery
(front line services) whilst reducing that
spent on administration
2) Increase the quality and calibre
delivery staff at all levels (teachers)
of
3) Give the non-government sector a
greater role and enable more effective
partnerships across both the government
and non-government sectors
4) Create more effective monitoring and
control
mechanisms
and
systems
(Accountability frameworks)
5) Increase accountability at the Local
Government level which forms the
bedrock of the countries education
system (Local Governments in Nigeria
being in charge of primary education)
43
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
6) Innovate and provide unconventional
solutions to take into account the unique
circumstances in the various communities
and cultures that exist in Nigeria
Educate
Transform
Deliver
OUR FUTURE
Our focus
As a diaspora led volunteer initiative, the
ENCP project group has taken a decision to
focus its efforts on a single area with the
potential to have the greatest and most
effective impact.
We are committed to working with local
delivery partners to create an effective
monitoring,
evaluation
and
control
mechanisms.
In a sense, going forward, our focus will be
on creating “Accountability frameworks” that
can be utilised by non-government
organisations, NGO’s and individual parents.
Parents are the second most important
stakeholder interested in an improved
educational system. The primary stakeholder
being the Nigerian child.
As such the next Future by US Education
Summit will be focused on creating a forum
for discussing ideas, projects and activities in
this area. This should however not detract
from the other key areas that are equally
important. However in the spirit of maximising
impact, this is where the primary drive from
this group will be invested.
The call to arms
We invite other bodies, NGO's, private
foundations and of course various levels of
the Nigerian Government to pick up one or
more areas we have identified and work in
partnership with all stakeholders to address
and resolve all issues identified in this
summary report. Imagine what can be
achieve if each of the five areas highlighted
in this summary are picked up by a specific
group who will then in partnership with
various bodies drive through reform, and
deliver change.
Why do we want this? Do we need this?
Fixing our education system has the potential
to be the catalyst that will turbo charge
Nigeria’s economy, just like it did for South
Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. A vastly
improved economy is one of the key
ingredients to a better society.
If this is not a good enough reason to get
involved; think of Usman, Ninah, Uchenna,
Ayodele and Anthony. Children born in 2013
in the various geo political zones of Nigeria.
Picture their path through till 2030 when they
are all seventeen. Their future is in our
hands. Whether they become criminals or
commercial farmers is down to us.
Let us work to give them the future we dream
of for our own children, a great, wholesome
society as part of a stable and prosperous
Nigeria. All because we all cared about the
education system we bequeathed to them.
References
Kpolovie, P. J., & Obilor, I. E. (2013). Adequacy–Inadequacy:
Education funding in Nigeria. Universal Journal of
Education and General Studies , 239-254.
Page, J. (1994). The East Asian Miracle: Four Lessons for
Development. In e. tanley Fischer and Julio J. Rotemberg,
NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1994, Volume 9 (pp. p.
219 - 282). MIT Press.
Professor Gopinathan, S., & Professor Boon, G. C. (2006). The
Development of Education in Singapore Since 1965. Asia
Education Study Tour for African Policy Makers. World
Bank.
44
Nigeria Education
Policy Review
i
Programme for International Student Assessment - PISA 2000 and
2009.
ii
Sahlberg, P (2011) “Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn
from educational change in Finland”.
DPI is the proud sponsor the Nigeria Education Policy Review
DPI Associates is a UK based specialist Transformation practice that uses Research, Consulting and
Training to define, manage and deliver the change process within organisations, integrating
organisational processes, systems and human resources across various sectors.
Having partnered with various universities, research institutes and organisations, we have worked
with and delivered projects for several medium and large scale multinationals, local and central
government organisations, as well as small and medium scale enterprises.
HTTP://WWW.DPIASSOCIATES.CO.UK/
The Every Nigerian Child Project is a diaspora-led policy advocacy platform that blends the
knowledge, skills, networks and capacity of people and organisations in Nigeria working to improve
the quality and effectiveness of Nigeria’s education system, with the knowledge, experience,
resources and know-how of the diaspora and international development partners.
The Nigerian Education Policy Review is a publication of the Every Nigerian Child Project, made
possible through the generous support of our sponsors, contributors and partners. All rights reserved.
All enquiries:
http://www.everynigerianchildproject.org.uk
The Every Nigerian Child Project
c/o The Education Hub, Suite 104 – 109
1st Floor, East Wing
City Hall, Lagos Island
45
Lagos, Nigeria

the future by us

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