Stakeholders at Senate Public Hearing, Resist NIEPA’s Relocation from Ondo

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Stakeholders in the education sector have supported a bill that would give legal backing to the establishment of National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) in Ondo, Ondo State, duing a public hearing that was held yesterday in the Senate. 

The bill was sponsored by Senator Ayo Akinyelure (PDP, Ondo Central) while the public hearing was organised by the Senate Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary).

The NIEPA was established in 1992 by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNESCO/International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) as a staff college for planners and managers in the Nigeria education sector and West Africa sub-region.

The Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan, who declared the public hearing open, said that the bill was an opportunity to support the institute to discharge its mandate more effectively and efficiently.

Lawan also emphasised the importance of planning in the education sector and declared that putting the institute in a proper shape was long overdue in view of the myriad of problems bedeviling the educational sector in the country, the worst of which is increasing number of out of school children, which is about 20 million now.

He said: “This is an opportunity for us to ensure that we make the institute as effective and as efficient and as professional as possible.

“It is our hope and prayer that the outcome of today’s public hearing will produce the Senate with an opportunity to make the right decision in terms of how this institute should be as professional as possible.

“I want to assure you that in addition to the amendment that this bill seeks, we will try to see that you are better supported to enable you discharge your mandate more effectively and efficiently.

“If we do our work and research well, we could be talking about 20m children out of school in Nigeria today which must be tackled right from the stage of educational planning, the institute is saddled to handle.”

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Gaidam (APC Yobe East), said that the NIEPA’s (Establishment) Bill 2022 sought to give legal backing to already functioning institution.

Gaidam said that the institute was established in 1992 with three-fold mandate, which was intended to move forward the professionalisation of educational planning and administration.

He said: “The essence of this public hearing is for the critical stakeholders and indeed the general public to objectively make their submissions to the committee for informed recommendations to the Senate to pass or reject the Bill as proposed.”

The Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, who was represented by Director of Legal Services in the Ministry of Education, Ms. Grace Ekanem, said that the bill was long overdue and enjoyed the full support of the education ministry.

Adamu said that the ministry was planning to come up with an executive bill on the institute before the Senate came up with the idea.

Speaking at the commencement of the public hearing, the sponsor of the Bill, Senator Akinyelure, said that “sadly despite the institute’s enormous potentials and its long years of existence and operations, it does not have an enabling law to regulate it’s activities to strengthen and entrench its core mandates.

Akinyelure, who opposed some subterranean moves to relocate the institute to Abuja, said that the institute has operated peacefully for over 30 years from Ondo, Ondo State.

Other stakeholders, such as the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), the National Teachers Institute (NTI), Kaduna, the National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), all spoke in support of the passage of the bill and were unanimous in their call for retaining the institute in Ondo town of Ondo State.

The Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, Oba Victor Kiladejo, while supporting the retention of the institute in Ondo town, said that the community donated 801 hectares of land to the institute with 91 buildings, road infrastructure and sporting facilities.

The monarch was represented by the former Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State. Prof. Femi Mimiko.