Education plays a crucial role in the country’s socio-economic growth. Unfortunately, education has continued on the downward trend over the years, owing to lack of infrastructure, trained teachers, poor funding, among others. These issues require legislative intervention. In this report, TONY Akowe examines the education component of the House of Representatives’ legislative agenda.
In the words of Speaker of the House of Representatives Abbas Tajudeen, Nigeria faces numerous challenges across various sectors, and legislative interventions are crucial for addressing these issues and driving positive change. In his mission statement outlined in the legislative agenda, the Speaker said a well-defined legislative agenda with legislative priorities was of utmost importance for the efficient and effective functioning of the Legislature. He described it as a roadmap that would guide lawmakers and legislative bodies in decision-making and lawmaking processes.
The agenda, he said, is also intended to streamline the activities of the House and guide the efficient allocation of resources. His words: “We expect this agenda to foster meaningful public engagement and encourage citizens and stakeholders to participate in debates, hearings and consultations related to the identified priorities, making the legislative process more inclusive and democratic.”
Interestingly, it has become a normal practice for each assembly to put forward a legislative agenda on what they planned to achieve in the four years in office. These agendas are anchored on the fact that there is work to be done in changing the society and making it a better place.
One of the key areas that requires urgent attention is education. There is no doubt that education remains the bedrock of human capital development in any society. Across the world, and with an increasingly knowledge-based society, technology and innovation have become the hallmark of economic and social advancement. With over 200 public and private universities, as well as other tertiary institutions, and thousands of secondary schools, Nigeria appears to be walking backward in educational advancement. The standard of education, even in the privately owned institutions has continued to dwindle. Public schools across the country have witnessed decline in funding and quality of students passing out of such schools. In the private schools, poor quality of teachers and lack of parents’ support have led to education decay.
The complaint has often been poor funding, lack of teachers’ training, limited educational facilities, poor access to quality educational facilities, low teacher-to-student ratio and the abandonment of technical education, among other challenges. It is apparent that the government has not adequately provided the resources and infrastructure to prepare students to meet contemporary and future demands and needs of the society.
The need for urgent reforms
There is the need to initiate a holistic overhaul of the Nigerian educational system and also update standards, processes, equipment and infrastructure to respond to global needs. The House of Representatives has identified this need and that for urgent reforms to engender functional, quality and transformational education of the highest standards to prepare Nigerian students at all levels to face the challenges ahead. While the Ninth Assembly gave attention to the issue of education as a subhead in its legislative agenda, the 10th Assembly has subsumed it under social sector reform and development, while also breaking it down into specific, with specific timelines and implementation plans.
There is no gainsaying the fact that inadequate budgetary provisions and strategic investment in the education sector, huge infrastructural decay at all levels of education in Nigeria, limited access and application of ICT in educational training, lack of educational materials in most public schools, limited number of teachers and other professionals in the education sector, policy inconsistencies at various levels of government among are issues that have affected the education sector in the country in addition to poor management of schools and weak governance of the educational system.
Under the current leadership, the House appears to have come to the realisation that you must have a strong education foundation for higher education to be meaningful. This explain the saying that when the foundation is weak, nothing good will come out of it. Therefore, in putting forward its legislative agenda for the next four years, the House has paid more attention to issues of basic education. In the opening statement of agenda 5 sub-8.1, the House said it will encourage measures through legislation, oversight and outreach to ensure the full achievement of Universal Basic Education, Almajiri education and technical education in Nigeria. It said further that “where necessary, legislation will ensure access to quality education, improve the infrastructure of learning institutions and teacher quality, and foster digital learning and technical education in Nigeria’s educational system. Efforts to make the constitutional provision of education a fundamental right will be revisited”. The House acknowledges the fact that reforming the education sector is a crucial step that must be taken towards achieving sustainable development and improving the quality of life for all Nigerians. According to the legislative agenda, the House promised to implement legislative measures that will improve the education sector. In doing so, the House intends to amend the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act 2004 to increase the share of the Consolidated Revenue Fund allocated to UBEC from two per cent to foue per cent. The goal, according to the document, is to ensure that the allocation to education meets the recommended benchmark by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) of 15 to 20% share of the total national budget. It also plans to enact a law that will promote the education of children with special needs, ensuring they have access to quality education, while also prioritising resource allocation to basic and secondary institutions and agencies.
Review and update of the national curricula
In addition, it plans to work with the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) to support the review and update of the national curricula to meet global standards and respond to the specific needs of Nigeria. It will also support the Executive to improve teachers’ remuneration and welfare and attract the best talents; increase budgetary allocation for school infrastructure, facilities and technology integration and ensure that funds are provided to school safety and security through basic facilities like fencing, gates, lighting and communication equipment to provide early and secondary warning to students and security agencies. It also plans to ensure robust oversight of the recently established National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) to reposition our Secondary School graduates for global competitiveness and intervene in critical areas such as infrastructure deficit, human capacity development and instructional materials.
Reform and modernisation of technical education system
In the area of technical education, the House is planning to reform and modernise the technical education system, which it said is pivotal for equipping students with the skills required to thrive in the modern era and contribute effectively to Nigeria’s economic growth. Accordingly, it is planning to ensure that existing laws are amended or new laws introduced if necessary to improve the nation’s technical and vocational school system. Some legislative priorities of the House include working with the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) to update the technical education curriculum to align with industry needs, ensuring students learn relevant skills. In doing so, it said the curriculum will be tailored in a way that it will address local challenges and opportunities. It also plans to ensure the new curricula integrate entrepreneurship modules to enable students to start their ventures as well as the integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics and renewable energy into the curriculum.
Allocation of funds
Other plans by the House for the sector include ensuring the allocation of funds to improve existing infrastructure, recruit qualified instructors, and train existing ones; providing more funding for the needed infrastructure such as modern laboratories, workshops, and equipment, strengthening and expanding TVET programmes to equip students with practical skills for the job market, working with the Executive to amend the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023, to include the provision of scholarships and financial aid for students pursuing technical education and encouraging private sector involvement in funding, curriculum development and providing resources for technical education.
The House is not oblivious of the challenges faced by the Almajiri education system in Nigeria, particularly concerning the welfare and well-being of the children involved. Largely, the system has been associated with child begging, maltreatment, and lack of access to formal education. In addition, the number of out-of-school children has continued to increase across the country. In other to address the situation, the National Assembly passed into law a bill to regulate the activities of this category of children. The House, therefore, plans to support the full take-off of the newly established National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education (OOSC), ensure the integration of Qur’anic and formal education to encourage children to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills and support the development of a curriculum incorporating formal education, skills acquisition and vocation training in the Almajiri system.
The agenda also states that the House will support establishing standardised and well-equipped Almajiri schools and ensure regular inspection and accreditation, engage religious and community leaders in these campaigns to give our legislative measures in this regard more credibility and acceptance; ensure that social intervention programmes of government are tailored to address underlying issues like poverty, which is a significant factor contributing to the Almajiri system and the high number of out-of-school children and undertake oversight of the National Commission for Almajiri Education and Out-of-School Children.
Timelines for implementation
Expectedly, the House has set timelines for the implementation of the agenda, which it believes, will help improve the quality of the country’s education. The timeline has been broken into short term, medium- and long-term plans. In the short term, the House plan to prioritise resource allocation to basic and secondary institutions and agencies, improve funding for the provision of basic facilities such as classrooms, libraries, and toilets in every UBE school. It will also support the Executive to improve teachers’ remuneration and welfare and attract the best talents and increase budgetary allocation for school infrastructure, facilities, and technology integration. In the short term, it also plans to encourage the development of new curricula that will integrate entrepreneurship modules to enable students to start their ventures, allocate funds to improve existing infrastructure, recruit qualified instructors, and train existing ones, support the full take-off of the newly established National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children (OOSC) Education and engage religious and community leaders in these campaigns to give our legislative measures in this regard more credibility and acceptance.
In the medium term, the plan of the House is to amend the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act 2004 to increase the share of the Consolidated Revenue Fund allocated to UBEC from 2% to 4%; enact a law that promotes the education of children with special needs, ensuring they have access to quality education in inclusive settings.
School safety and security
It will also ensure that funds are provided to school safety and security through basic facilities like fencing, gates, lighting, and communication equipment to provide early and secondary warning to students and security agencies. It also plans to work with the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB) to update the technical education curriculum to align with industry needs, ensuring students learn relevant skills. The curriculum will be tailored to address local challenges and opportunities, ensure integration of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and renewable energy into the curriculum. They will also strengthen and expand TVET programs to equip students with practical skills for the job market.
Among others, it also plans to ensure that social intervention programmes of government are tailored to address underlying issues like poverty, which is a significant factor contributing to the Almajiri system and the high number of out-of-school children.
The long term plan is to ensure a robust oversight of the recently established National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) to reposition Secondary School graduates for global competitiveness and intervene in critical areas such as infrastructure deficit, human capacity development, and instructional materials, work with the Executive to amend the Students Loan (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023, to include the provision of scholarships and financial aid for students pursuing technical education and undertake oversight of the National Commission for Almajiri Education and Out-of-School Children.
As ambitious as the education agenda is, implementation has always been a major challenge in the country. It is left to be seen how the legislature will ensure the implementation of the ideas contained in the agenda. In the Ninth Assembly, more than half of what was contained in the education agenda of the House was not implemented. Many believe that was largely due to the fact that the house had no standing committee to monitor the implementation of the agenda. In the 10th Assembly, the leadership of the House has put in place a full standing committee with members drawn from all states of the federation.
