Policy options to driving inclusive education in Nigeria
3 min read
Liberty Career Academy, a leading social enterprise, has released a comprehensive Policy Brief saying how to address the current disruption being faced by the Nigerian education sector due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
The world was plunged into a spiral of dramatic events by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus earlier this year. It has been quite a struggle for countries of the world to settle in with the new normal. For a country like Nigeria, the pandemic has shown us the painful truth that our educational system cannot survive in the face of crisis until the gaps in policy and administration are fixed.
The LCA Policy Brief clearly highlights the overwhelming challenges before our educational system, as well as the timely solutions to combat such challenges.
According to the report, the narrative currently looks like an extended holiday, since our students have not had the opportunity to go back to their classrooms since March 2020, but the obvious problem that needs to be tackled is the inability of the Nigerian child to receive the needed education that will enable him to compete favorably on the international scene and proffer relevant solutions in the global workforce.
Stressing UNICEF’s data on the rate of out of school children, the report states that approximately 10.5 million children aged 5-14 years in Nigeria are not in school, and one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. Not only is this alarming, it is a reality that is fast becoming a global menace as a result of the pandemic.
According to the team led by Mr. Gbenga Rufai, the Executive- Director, “being technology-savvy is important for success in the 21st century and what better way to acquire such skills than through early introduction to technology-driven education”.
Unfortunately, since March 2020, schools have shut down across Nigeria and due to lack of infrastructure for online learning, education has for the most part ground to a halt. Though privately-run schools have made haphazard attempts to use digital tools to keep their students engaged, these attempts according to the authors are however not fully approved by Ministries of Education and thus not guided by any uniform strategy. It also effectively cuts out millions of children in public schools.
“A non-negotiable option that is currently before the Nigerian educational system is the digitization of learning processes. This calls for the establishment of a specific digital learning road map that clearly identifies the key players and necessary factors that will make the deployment of e-learning, a success in the Nigerian educational system.
“The report clearly argues that this will not be possible without reviewing existing laws and policies that currently impede the incorporation of digital learning into our educational structure, especially at the grassroots level.” he said.
The LCA Policy brief also identifies an important modality that can be adopted to bring teachers up to speed in the emerging global learning space. This training and learning model seeks to bridge the learning gap that currently exists between advanced nations of the world and the third world countries, Nigeria being the focus of this publication.
The current turn of events in the world calls for forward thinking leaders and proactive participants in the execution of relevant policies that will drive the needed change in the Nigerian educational system. The solutions highlighted in this month’s edition of the LCA Policy Brief seeks to address the current problems and chart a new pathway that leads to a radical breakthrough in the Nigerian educational sector.
Liberty Career Academy is a hub of creative thinkers and strategists. They have a mandate of assisting organizations and individuals irrespective of demographic differences discover their essence, equip them with the right competencies and guide them in properly expressing it via their careers or business. The Academy provides training, mentorship, scholarship, research & advocacy on related governance & policy issues to achieve her mandate.
