President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan yesterday urged the National Economic Summit Group (NESG) to review the policy foundation of Nigeria’s education sector which was developed in 1969 to meet the current realities in the country.
Jonathan made the call in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the 20th Nigeria Economic Summit, with the theme “Transforming Education through Partnership for Global Competitiveness.”
The president, who was represented by Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, said the policy foundation is ripe for review to determine its relevance and fine tune its adaptability to national objectives in the 21st century.
“It is my hope that this summit will take up this challenge; by applying itself rigorously to the design of an ideal education system that will satisfy our national needs and aspirations.”
He said the present administration holds education in high premium because it was a key to accelerating national transformation and development, adding that “education has changed the destiny of nations, big and small and we are determined to change our story for the very best.”
He said government had identified access, quality and equity as the main strategic goals of Nigerian education, stressing that government had introduced several initiatives to achieve these goals.
The president also called for more partnership between the three tiers of government, the private sector and international development partners in designing credible sectoral accountability frameworks that would impact positively on the education sector.
He also called on stakeholders in the education sector to come up with practical solutions to surmount challenges of acquiring accurate statistics, especially at the basic and secondary levels particularly on school enrolment and other education indices.
In his remarks, the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, said the Transformation Agenda of the present administration placed premium on education as an instrument par excellence for human capital development and socio-economic emancipation.
He said the Federal Ministry of Education had developed a road map aimed at repositioning the sector, stressing that the road map addressed issues relating to access and equity, such as low enrolment, retention, transition and low carrying capacity of tertiary education institutions.
