The All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools says emphasis on paper qualification is a stumbling block to the growth and advancement of the country’s education system.
Anselm Izuagie, National President of ANCOPSS, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Lagos.
Izuagie said: “The emphasis on paper certificate in Nigeria has created a lot of setbacks for our education; it encourages examination malpractices, which is now a serious challenge bedeviling our education.
“In many advanced countries, the education system places emphasis on technical education and creative abilities of the students, and this is what helps their development.”
Izuagie urged the Federal Government to revisit the technical and vocational education policy which was designed to create middle level manpower in the country.
He said: “Government needs to go back to the drawing board to properly apply the policy of technical and vocational training that places less emphasis on certificates.
“Between 1980 and 1992, government imported instructional machineries from Russia that were meant for technical education, and several technical schools were created across the country.
“But the decay started in 1992 when the machineries were abandoned, government has a lot to do in this to revisit this idea.”
The ANCOPSS president urged government to prioritise the development the secondary education so as to properly develop other levels of education.
Izuagie said: “Government needs to ensure that the secondary education sector is properly funded and well developed as this will ensure proper functioning of the tertiary as well as the primary education sectors.
“The fact that pupils from primary schools need the secondary schools to advance their education, while the tertiary institutions need the secondary schools to admit new students yearly underscores the importance of the sector.”
He, however, disagreed with the view that the standard of education in the country had fallen, adding that what was lacking was government’s commitment.
He said: “The standard of education has not fallen; the rate of development of an average Nigerian child is high, and our standard of appreciating education is high.
“But the level of commitment of governments to education, and implementation of education policies have fallen drastically, and the federal government needs to address these.
“There are issues of low level of manpower, inadequate infrastructure, politicising of education and governments profiteering through indiscriminate approvals of private schools just to increase revenue.
“All these should be addressed if government is serious about improving the standard of education in Nigeria.’’
Izuagie advised the federal government to set up “curriculum department” in the Ministry of Education to ensure regular, periodic review of the education curriculum.
He said: “The Ministry of Education is supposed to have a curriculum department that will ensure that the school curriculum is reviewed at five year intervals.
“Right now, the National Economic Research Council is saddled with that responsibility, but it has not been effective and regular enough.
“The school’s curriculum is an integral aspect of education and its periodic review should be taken more seriously.”
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