House of Rep Committee On Basic Education Propose Enabling Law For NIEPA

The Federal House of Representatives Committee on Basic Education and Services Chairman, Professor Julius Ihonvbere on Monday proposed a bill that will regulate activities of National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, NIEPA..

Ihonvhere made the suggestion during the House Committee meeting with the management team of NIEPA on budget defence saying the only way it can be more efficient in delivering on its mandate is to have an instrument protecting it from all forms of inefficiency and maladministration.

According to him ” I think one of your major problems is you have no enabling law. This committee will take note of that. It is not ideal that an agency of this capacity doesn’t have an enabling law. Somebody can go to court to create problems for the agency some mischief makers.

”We are looking at planning and administering education in a different way. I am wishing you what I wish myself. The road will be rough. 90% of the people in the educational sector are not ready to change. But, they will have to change whether they like it or not. The world is changing. Thinking is changing. Work is changing. Mode of learning is changing. There are global companies who have told all their workers of not even thinking of coming to the office. Because they make more money with their workers staying at home during covid-19.”

”Just a few days ago, some Americans came into Nigeria to rescue one man. That didn’t happen because they were able to drink 12 bottles of beer. It happened because of education, the science of planning, methodology of focused leadership and commitment to national ideas. The 9th Assembly has also insisted that it is very important that we placed education on a high pedestal. And, fund it adequately. Today’s papers are reporting that about 400 MDAs are unable to pay salaries. Some of these MDAs particularly the Agencies involved with educational services. That is embarrassing. A nation that toys with education is toying with the present and the future of generations. So, as we begin our budget defence today”, he stated.

Speaking shortly after the defence by the team, the DG, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, NIEPA, Prof. Olivet Jagusah said the agency has done its best with the level of resources available to it.

” I can say we did pretty well with the amount and resources available to us. Also, in the context of the challenge we are dealing with now,the pandemic showed that we are ill equipped to deal with it. But, we are trying as much as possible to use available technology to do basic things. Build capacity for headmasters, head teachers and school administrators. And, the release to our budget was quite minimal from the sharing you will see. From the items, we got about 4o something releases. So, we were cash-strapped such that we couldn’t do much.

” We are hoping that we will stay in charge because the pandemic has given us opportunity as I have shared with the committee that the more money we have the higher the ability we will have to build capacity for the entire educational system. NIEPA is serving education from basic to tertiary. As we work to acquire the status of Inter-University agency, or institute then we should be in a place to have a buzzy view of education planning in this country. To the point that it is not just about numbers but both the capacity to actually give authentic education from the youth and so forth.

He stressed the need for Northern Governors to form partnership with NIEPA so that there will be a more encompassing framework for almajiri education system as its former methods can no longer stand the test of time.

His words: ” We are also hoping that next year we will work with governors from the northern part of the country to help understand educational basis of the crisis that they are dealing with in the north, Here is an entire regional educational system that has been in existence since 21st century where young people 60% are dump in a school system that has no associative reward system. So, you put a child in an Almajiri for 12 years and then you tell him the education you have given him has no value. You tell him if he says he wants a job that he should go and bring his school leaving certificate which was not part of the Almajiri system.

”These are things we can fix through policies. So, NIEPA is working towards a conversation with Northern Governors to help them understand that they are generating the problems that they are going through. And, they can do it through simple rethinking equivalence. Somebody has put in six years in Almajiri school and that should be an equivalent of a First Leaving School certificate. Or somebody has put in 12 years and that should be an equivalent of WASSCE. When you do that people become employable. There are no longer empty hands that people are recruiting for malcontent. So, those are the kind of vision and thinking we are bringing to the process”, he suggested.