IEDUMAN Seeks Review of National Education Policy

Mary Nnah

The need for a holistic review of the country’s educational policies was one of the highlights of the discussion by stakeholders at the 2018 Eduskill Fair, organised by the International Educational Management Network (IEDUMAN).

In his paper, Prof. Adams Onuka of the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, emphasised the need to review the country’s educational policies and if necessary, adopt and adapt some of the best modules from around the world.

“We can get policies, for instance, from Korea, Finland or England, from any other place, put a team together to work on them and subsequently bring the outcome to the public domain for discussion. By the time we work through these and add what they lack from our own contents into it, we have a formidable, sustainable, non-somersault policy that will move our education forward.”

The event, which held recently at the Lagos NUT Pavilion, Ikeja, attracted participants from various sectors of the society, including leading academics, government functionaries, students, parents and exhibitors.

Stressing the need to accord education a priority in the country, another speaker, Bunmi Omeke, a lawyer, noted that majority of Nigerians are in agreement that “we need strict policies to get it right in the education sector.”

She said the only way to do this is an “inclusive participation” whereby every sector of the economy is obliged to contribute to the debate. “It is education that will still take us far as a country,”

Omeke, whose presentation focused on how to lay a solid foundation for businesses in the private sector, especially with regard to the business of education, underscored the need to get it right.

“We blame the government all the time, but even the private educator has a case to answer: how far have we impacted the education industry positively and what is our primary motivation, is it just making profits? Education has to do with life and they need to do more. We have a lot of laws in this country, the problem we have is implementation. It will be better if we start considering this.”

The fair, which first held on June 24, 2017, is a platform to showcase vocation in education and thus emphasises vocational skills as vital part of education. The 2018 edition was themed ‘Scaling and Realigning Education for Global Competitiveness’.