By JOHN ONAH, Abuja –
It is no more news that Nigeria has good policies and programme in every facet of the society but the reoccurring dilemma has been a lack of political will to implement them.
Stakeholders in education sectors including UNICEF, the media, Civil Society Organizations and others recently met in a parley organized by the UNICEF to discuss on the learning crisis facing Nigeria.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) organized a two-day media dialogue on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Kano, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture’s Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB), with a focus on ‘Foundational Literacy and Numeracy,’ where experts x-rayed some of the underlying issues to be brought to the front burner.
After a deep reflection on the nation’s education system, the stakeholders identified the implementation of UBE Act as one sure way of escaping from the crisis.
This Act provides for compulsory, free universal basic education for all children of primary and junior secondary school age in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. An Act to provide for Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education; and for connected purposes.
Meanwhile, in a level of agreement on the topic, a 2018 World Bank Report warned of a learning crisis in Nigeria and other developing countries, which are facing moral and economic problems as a result of primary and secondary schools failing to provide students with the necessary education to succeed in life.
Despite the establishment of Universal Basic Education (UBE) in 1999, which is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring the acquisition of the appropriate levels of literacy, manipulative and life skills as well as the ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying the foundation for lifelong learning for children, have continued to be a mere dream.
The major concern of the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the education sector in the country had been on how to ensure that the more than 10.5 million out-of-school children are enrolled in schools.
However, the new global report has shown that the actualisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, especially Goal 4, is being threatened by the learning crisis.
Experts had warned that this phenomenon posed a serious threat to the country and a dark future for Nigerian children, and that it would necessitate concerted efforts from all stakeholders.
UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office, Kano, Rahama Mohammed Farah, while speaking at the event, reiterated that Nigeria is faced with a learning crisis, whereby adequate learning is not taking place in schools.
Farah, who was represented by Elhadji Issakha Diop, Officer-in-Charge (OIC), UNICEF Field Office Kano, cited the World Bank as stating that Nigeria is facing learning poverty, with 70% of 10-year-old learners unable to understand a simple sentence or execute basic arithmetic tasks.
“When it comes to children’s rights, education is one of them. Education is a vital human right, and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines it clearly.
“It is clear that to improve learning outcomes in Nigeria, achieving basic foundational skills at that level of learning cannot be overemphasized,” he said.
Speaking on the importance of child’s rights, UNICEF Communication Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, said that there was no way the SDGs could be achieved by 2030 without focusing on children’s rights.
The Federal Government also affirmed this as clearly stated in the ‘Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan (2018-2022),’ that inadequate funding, poor quality of teachers, who in general lack the ability to implement the national curriculum were some of the key factors impeding the attainment of the national targets and the full achievement of SDGs target goals.
Goal 4 of the 2030 global agenda is meant to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
In her virtual presentation, UNICEF Education Specialist, Manar Ahmed, lamented that there was a huge learning crisis in Nigeria which had led to over 70 percent of children not achieving basic foundational skills.
She decried poor funding and low public spending on education as reflected in budgetary allocation to the education sector in Nigeria, where about 7 percent of the national budget was allocated to education in 2022, and also about 1.7 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was allocated to education.
She listed other challenges of basic education in Nigeria including a shortage of qualified teachers, disclosing that about 27 percent of the teaching staff are unqualified, with insufficient physical resources, and a high teacher-pupil ratio of 1 to 55 in primary schools.
She noted that Nigeria does not lack the right policies to address the learning crisis but political will to implement the policies to improve on the quality basic education delivery.
“Nigeria is facing a staggering learning crisis with learning outcomes being one of the lowest globally,” she said.
“When you look at public expenditure on education, the World Bank said that it was at 5.6 percent. This year, 2022, President Buhari had already approved 7 percent to the education sector budget, which is a great move to address the learning crisis.
Reacting to report by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), that Nigeria is faced with staggering learning crisis with about 70 per cent of children in schools cannot read and write or perform basic numeracy task by age 10, the Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, said the Commission is worried by the poor learning outcomes in basic education despite huge intervention by the Federal Government.
He, however, blamed this on a number of factors including, the recruitment of unqualified teachers by some state governments, lack of regular professional training programmes for teachers, and low remuneration among others.
Bobboyi spoke while declaring open a one-day workshop for Council for Regulation of Engineers in Nigeria (COREN) inspectors for monitoring of UBEC/SUBEBS Matching Grant intervention projects in 36 states and FCT.
The UBEC boss, however, said that even though the figures were not scientific, the Commission was working with UNICEF to have a large-scale assessment of learning achievements in the country, going into the details of what the problems are and to improve learning outcomes in Nigeria.
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