Education Sector: Strikes Will Be A Recurring Decimal In Nigeria- Bola Bakare

  

A public affairs analyst, Mr Bola Bakara has urged Nigerians to brace up for the problems that will continue to face the Nigerian educational system, especially strikes by lecturers of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

“We have a big problem in our hands” he said, adding that “the strikes that have been on and on is going to be a recurring decimal either from ASUU or ASUP” on Tuesday during Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
Despite agreeing that the strikes are a “form of social engineering for them to demand more pay” he noted that the unions have not delivered their own part of the bargain insisting that “it is based on one major factor, which is money”.
He praised the 6-3-3-4 system of education but berated the implementation of the policy which would have seen to the churning out of graduates that will be employable in any part of the world.
He called on the authorities to lay more emphasis on “primary and secondary education” noting that “when it comes to tertiary; that is professional specialisation”. He also added that “if we get that (primary and secondary) right, we are 70 per cent home.
“If we can have a good 6-3-3, we are in fantastic business”.
He was also of the opinion that the Nigerian education system has not achieved any success in implementing policies that will strengthen the primary and secondary education.
Mr Bakare, who is a representative of the Truth Be Told Network, pinpointed funding as one of the major problems of the education system arguing that “Nigeria is not short of funds”.
He added that “Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) has over N200 billion idle, Universal Basic Education (UBE) has N50 billion idle” because states are required to provide counterpart funding for the implementation.
He however agreed, in the case of TETFUND, that the funds could not be accessed due to the inability of tertiary institutions to come up with certain documents and proposals on what they needed funds for.
He argued that “coming from the national level where the policies are being implemented, where were they when the tertiary institutions were performing on the funds given prior?”
The Federal Government in January berated state governors for refusing to access the N41 billion counterpart funds for the implementation of UBE in their states.
Minister of State for Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, who expressed government’s disappointment at the 11th Quarterly Meeting of UBEC Management with Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB), in Osogbo, Osun State, said it was sad that the money was yet to be accessed by states, lamenting that the situation was unhealthy for development of basic education in the country.
The minister, in a statement by the Principal Public Relations Officer of UBEC, Mr. David Apeh,  said he was particularly worried that a lot of improvement could be done in existing schools and new schools established across the country with such huge funds not accessed by states.
”Nothing can justify the situation where billions of naira meant to expand access and improve the quality of basic education delivery are deliberately left un-accessed and, therefore, un-utilised, while the problems facing effective basic education delivery continue to stare at us as a nation,” Wike lamented

source: channelstv