The Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) was initiated in 1993,it had its 19th NES in 2013 focused on Agricultural sector, now the 20th NES focused on the Education sector tagged "TRANSFORMING EDUCATION THROUGH PARTNERSHIP FOR GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS" at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on 18th-20th of March 2014.like
Speakers and Panelists like President Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Uche Chukwumerijie, Prof. Pai Obanya (WAEC), Adams Oshiomole, Hon. Aminu Suleiman- Chairman, House Committee of Education just to mention a few
The 20th NES on Education sector was on these four critical areas that needs new thinking if Nigeria is to develop as a Nation:
National consensus on the objective for our education system
Collective realization of the pervasive centrality and importance of education to national development
Sustainable structural reforms and changes that allow the emergence of a 21st century economy
Building a culture of life-long learning to ensure the Nigerian economy can respond quickly to global changes and global development
Alero Ayida Otobo (2014) said:
Focus should be on early childhood education that every Nigerian Child needs
Making Vocational and technical education exciting by having better infrastructures
Create an opportunity to push the innovative enterprise institutes initiative to the for front
Need for new curriculum for schools in Nigeria should be looked into ensure that the students are taught the right things that would be beneficial to employers of labour
ALVAN IKOKU FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, OWERRI
Identified that:
Our Education must inculcate the values of leadership; intuition, honesty, integrity and 21st Century skills, remodeling the learning environment and physical infrastructure to reflect the character of education budget
More focus should be on trending global skills by establishing research and development capabilities in schools
Develop new generation teacher that is passionate, emotionally intelligent, culturally sensitive, teach savvy, technology competent, role model, team player, expert communicator and life-long learner.
Teacher Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) should be restructured to be like Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), etc reviewing condition of service for teachers especially in areas of wages, career progression and professional learning communities.
The SUMMIT also identified ways of removing the disparity existing between graduate of the university and those of the polytechnic, a gap that the federal government had tried to bridge in the past without a positive outcome.Teaching Profession should be attractive.
For over 6 months now: the Question is how much of all this has been implemented or set out to achieve as Deborah (Oh ! Sorry) Ebola (smiles) has become a major distraction in the Education sector today.
Recently in Abuja, the Government has raised a technical committee on the National Policy on vocational Skills Development to Bridge the gap that exist in the technical and Vocational training in the country. Honourable Chukwuemeka Wogu, the Minister of Labour said the committee marks another milestone in the on-going and commitment to strengthen the Ministry.
The 14 man committee to be chaired by Mrs. Theresa Braimah, Director Productivity measurement and Labour Standards in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity with members fro the representatives of COREN - Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, National Boars foe Technical Education Headquater, Kaduna, CEO of 360 Capacity Builders Ltd, retired Director of Skills Development and Certification in the Ministry, amongst a others. They are to provide a report within 6 weeks to institutionalize a National Vocational Training and Skill Culture through hard work, creativity and innovation
This is a wake up call for the necessary committee, body, agencies in charges of implementing this to get busy and ensure the right measures are put into place.
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