2004 National Education Policy Review: Philosophical Damage to Foundation of Education in Nigeria – JAMB Registrar

The review of 2004 National Education Policy, NPE has done philosophical damage to the foundation of education in Nigeria.

The registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede stated this in Osogbo while presenting a paper at the 6th Biennial Conference of the Pro-chancellor of State-owned University in Nigeria (COPSON) holding at Osun State University.

Addressing the theme: State Ownership Dynamics, university councils and the need for a new social contract between the society and university, Oloyede who said he preferred the 2004 NPE noted that the 2007, 2013, and 2014 editions have continued to wreck incalculable havoc owing to some fundamental error made in them.

He said the ivory towers are no longer allowed to serve the purpose for which they were established, saying the university councils have a serious role to play to change the narrative.

“The elimination of “relevant” from manpower training is, in our view, unfair to a nation that is notorious for mass producing what is neither required nor useful

“Meanwhile, due to the attraction that university enjoys as the apex of all education, it has been subjected to abuse and the concept has become compromised in many places in the world, including Nigeria, as governments, policy makers, regulatory bodies and university administrators draw daggers at the very soul of the university concept.

“Rather than be allowed to serve its purposes, many a university has become a battle ground of contestation of ethnic rivalry, religious supremacy, political brinkmanship and social malaise all deriving from poor governance,” he said.

Oloyede decried politicisation and proliferation of university which only increase the number rather than focusing on functionality.

He said governments should deemphasise increase in the number of universities but rather focus on establishing industries where graduates would work as was done by the early political leaders in Nigeria.

He said “for state governments, the establishment of universities is predicated on the imperative of fulfilling the social contract of developing the States through education. As noble as the goal is, it is increasingly being eroded with the predilection of some governors to establish universities just for the sake of establishing them without any consideration for the legal contract upon which universities are ensconced.

“Many state universities suffer from acute misgovernance and underfunding as they were just established to score cheat political scores or message the ego of public servants who just want to cite a university in their villages or just add establishing a university to the chain of their achievements.”

“Conversely, our national political ancestors like Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Amadu Bello and Nnamadi Alike emphasised where the graduates would work. At that time the industry would be waiting to receive skilled employees on graduation”

To reverse the trend, the JAMB registrar suggested among other recommendations, amendment of the Nigerian Constitution to subject establishment of universities to rigorous scrutiny and satisfaction of Natural Universities Commission (NYC) based on viability, demand master plan, academic briefs and the law.

Represented by his Deputy Governor Gboyega Oyetola who declared the conference open, tasked State-owned universities on the challenge of leading focused, disciplined and visionary institution.

He said “Owing to its peculiar nature as centres of research and knowledge production, our educational institutions, especially the universities, hold a special role in this redemptive agenda.

“To play this role effectively, however, the university system and, in this context, state-owned universities must be strengthened and sufficiently empowered.

“This empowerment should go beyond seeking administrative autonomy to incubate our Ivory Towers as responsible and responsive partners that work assiduously with the respective governments and owners to solve prevaling developmental challenges.”

The chairman, COPSON and the Pro-chancellor, UNIOSUN Mallam Yusuf Ali said the conference was aimed at fomulating policy that would attend to the myriads of challenged facing education system in State-owned universities in particular and in Nigeria in general.

He said the conference was committed to pursuing the path of excellence for the university education in Nigeria.

The host Vice Chancellor, Prof. Clement Odunayo expressed conviction that new policies on effective governance and leadership of State-owned universities would emerged from the conference.

He said “Nigerians should be expecting policy shift in the areas of governance and leadership of the state universities.

“We cannot apply the ideas of the last ten years to address the issues of the present because many things have changed even in the last two years. We are trying to talk about how can we do things differently, how how can we do things differently would be addressed by this COPSON and as a result new policies are likely to come out on how to govern and lead state universities in Nigeria.”