By Adeyinka Adeniran
A former Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Prof Idowu Olayinka has called on the government to whatever education policy been considered for adoption should put the up scaling of competencies of students on the front burner.
Additionally, he said major challenges that the various National Policy on Education have has to do with inadequate funding, ill-motivated teachers/instructors, poor welfare, outdated curriculum, and lack of facilities for technical and vocational education, urging the government to consider the challenges before adopting any policy.
He spoke in response to the proposal by the federal government to move from the 6-3-3-4 to 12-4 model of education.
Olayinka, a Professor of Applied Geophysics said if the new policy is to be adopted, training in entrepreneurship should be main streamed into the curriculum so that the system is able to produce job providers and not job seekers.
He said “I think this proposal to move from the 6-3-3-4 to 12-4 model has to be considered by the National Council of Education in order to ascertain its advantages over the current template.
“The major challenges that the various National Policy on Education have has to do with inadequate funding, ill-motivated teachers/instructors, poor welfare, outdated curriculum, and lack of facilities for technical and vocational education.
“Whichever policy is adopted at any point in time should put the up scaling of competencies of students on the front burner. The IT capabilities of the students and their trainers have to be given top priority.
“Training in Entrepreneurship should be main streamed into the curriculum so that the system is able to produce job providers and not job seekers. At the same time the government should not engage in frequent policy somersault which would disrupt the educational aspirations of those students who are already in the system.
“The unbroken 12 years of continuous schooling is not going to contribute meaningfully to the seemingly intractable problem of Out-of-School-Children.
“At any rate, not all the school children can proceed at the same pace in the pursuit of their educational aspirations. Yet, no child should be seen as a failure. They need to be given opportunities to discover their (hidden) talents.”
