The Federal Government has promised to review and implement new initiatives to tackle challenges in primary education, including out-of-school children and ‘learning poverty.’
Specifically, the government pledged to focus on teachers’ quality, school environment and efficient governance. It also reaffirmed its commitment to supporting local and state governments in achieving universal basic education.
Minister of State for Education, Dr Suwaba Ahmad, made the promises yesterday in Abuja at the opening of a nationwide training and sensitisation workshop for the country’s 774 councils’ education secretaries, organised by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
She said the training, targeted at education managers, was vital for delivering basic education, particularly within the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme’s framework.
Her words: “As a matter of fact, the local governments have the constitutional responsibility for primary school education delivery. It, therefore, will serve a good end when we have trained competent managers and effective supervisors at the local government level.
“As we are all aware, education ranks high on the priority list of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as espoused in the Renewed Hope Agenda.” On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, explained that the event was to train and sensitise all local government education secretaries.
In a related development, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has directed all state-owned tertiary institutions of learning to begin delivery of experiential learning to change the nation’s developmental narrative. He argued that Nigeria’s current education model and spending could not deliver the much-needed speedy development and economic transformation.
Experiential learning, according to him, is a hands-on learning approach where individuals gain knowledge and skills through direct experience and reflection.
Speaking yesterday while delivering the first Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Distinguished Personalities Lecture Series, Mbah pushed for an urgent paradigm shift from rote or memorisation to experiential learning, which he described as the missing link between education, industrialisation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.
In the lecture entitled “Experiential Learning: Building the Wealth of the Nation,” the governor queried: “Why do Nigerian universities seldom feature on the global ranking list of the world’s best universities? Why have they seemed perennially unable to become the ideas factory which universities ought to be? Why are our universities not producing inventive graduates?
“The answers to these questions lie in many inconvenient truths, among which is the fact that the learning in our schools, from basic to tertiary, has for years not imbued our young people with productive skills and competencies. This is a root cause of our underdevelopment.”
He observed that knowledge has always been the prime lever for progress throughout human history, the reason he said nations like the U.S., China, Germany and the Netherlands, which invest the most in building a qualitative and experiential education ecosystem are the world’s leading economies.
Mbah, who is currently building 260 Smart Green Schools to power experiential learning in the 260 wards of Enugu State, stressed that by embedding the model from the basic to tertiary levels of education, his state was creating a seamless pipeline where students progress from foundational learning to practical innovation.
Vice Chancellor of ESUT, Prof Alloysius-Michael Okolie; Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Sir Chinyeaka Oha and chairman of the public lecture, Prof Obiora Ike, commended Mbah for his huge investments in the education sector and transformational leadership across all sectors.
