- “The focus on education systems is timely and needed if Nigeria is to advance globally.
A former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, has said that if all sectors of the education system and the economy work together, Nigeria will build a lasting system that is sustainable and plugged into the competencies, skills and values that a child should acquire in the process of their education.
She made this known on Friday at Zone Park in Gbagada, Lagos, during the 2019 Nigerian Education Innovation Summit, an event organised by The Education Partnership Centre to highlight the role of education innovations in solving challenges facing the delivery of accessible and high-quality education.
Ezekwesili, while interacting with about 400 stakeholders drawn from government, academia, development and funding organisations, corporations, civil society organisations and education innovators, also said that education was a system that required shared responsibilities as she identified major issues that have set the education system and its products backward.
“The focus on education systems is timely and needed if Nigeria is to advance globally. It is imperative we disrupt the status-quo because the world has left us and we need to catch up in terms of strengthening our education systems.
“Disrupting the status-quo requires that we rethink systems and do away with traditional forms of teacher-classroom dialectic. This is urgent because we must empower pupils to learn as their skills determine the future workforce. The world of work for them is entirely different so Nigeria must avoid a skills-workforce mismatch. Consequently, education policymakers must scrutinise the current education system to ensure we are on the right track.
“To achieve the scale of change, the network of stakeholders gathered here today must be at the centre and should use their voice to pressure the government to do what is right for teachers and learners. The voice of education and human capital must continue to resound and must not rest on its oars. Digital solutions for exponential growth to improve access, quality and equity will prove very useful in this regard,” Ezekwesili submitted.
Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Gemstone Group and a 2019 Presidential Candidate, Mr Fela Durotoye spoke on the role of families and communities in building safe and inclusive learning experiences for children.
According to Durotoye, “Technology has become part of the village that raises children and prepares them for the future. There is no point in teaching your children not to lie if society rewards liars. No point raising our children if we are not going to raise society. We must mentor others because they will ultimately mentor our children. We have lost the sense of community — I popularly call it ‘common unity’. To be able to see common unity emerge we must drive a set of values; the kind of values that we share at home and in the community.”
Speaking on the aim of the summit, the Managing Director of TEP Centre and the convener of the summit, Dr Modupe Adefeso-Olateju, said, “Discussions at the summit underscore the importance of identifying and systematically scaling innovations such that they become more deeply embedded in policy systems and reach more beneficiaries.
“It was important to make the summit a platform where there is a focus on things that are pertinent in the education sector and bring together a cross-section of stakeholders from various sectors to view the thematic focus of each year from various lenses. With this, we can resolve the challenges in the education sector through combination, coordination, and cooperation of these diverse stakeholders.”
