By  Hilary Ogili

NOBODY is in doubt about the unmitigated drift that our educational system has taken both at the local and national level for about two decades now. It can conveniently be argued, with due respect to contrary views, however, that the  moral decadence, low academic performance culminating inexorably in poor and low quality delivery in our public and private lives are the result of poor education, engendered by years of systemic neglect and failure. Those whose duty it is to change the narrative in our foundational educational system have either chosen to use it for political patronage and some clannish motives, or for corrupt enrichment and more.
When we hear with benumbing oddity that our graduates are ‘unemployable’, it even gets more scary because by the day, one is confronted with the reality of a morally decadent generation which has a faulty educational foundation .And as the cliche goes, you can’t build something on nothing! The bedrock for a sound, morally -decent and development oriented society is sound education, driven by quality, dedicated and well remunerated teachers in a good teaching environment; parental guidance and other deliberate positive policy frameworks by government. I dare say, however, that basic/foundational education- primary and post-primary, is at the core of the challenge we have been grappling with as a nation.
It is against this backdrop, that the government of Enugu State through the State Universal Basic Education Board, headed by Chief Ikeje Asogwa has shown more than a cursory interest in this  all- important sector since the inception of the current administration. Realizing that basic education is the foundation for building the child for future academic and social challenge and by extension ‘unlocks talent, grows society and expands the frontiers of humanity’, the government of the state, through the Universal Basic Education Board, started with the fundamentals: reconstruction/rehabilitation of abandoned primary and post-primary school infrastructure; well advertised teachers recruitment exercise .
It is trite knowledge that school infrastructure in the state, which hitherto had received several backlash due to the poor, decrepit condition has suddenly been turned around. Thanks to the quick intervention by the helmsmen in the current administration. It is worthy of note, however, that the former administration did its best within the context of its own policy and strategic direction as it affects education in the state at the time. For  instance, the purchase of operating vehicles for principals of secondary schools in the state and the like, but there existed a gap, especially in the lack of proper monitoring of the implementation of school projects awarded to contractors. This manifested in the huge number of uncompleted and abandoned classroom blocks, conveniences and other facilities awarded to contractors by the last administration.
Given the  priority accorded this foundational education sub-sector, the present government within a year of inception and less than six months of the inauguration of the State UBEB, was able to invoke the necessary legal instruments to revoke these projects from  the defaulting contractors while ensuring that competent hands were deployed to get the structures back in place in order to create an enabling and conducive reading environment for our children. At the moment, more than 90 percent of hundreds of the abandoned and uncompleted projects scattered all over the state have been fully completed and handed over to the communities.
Of greater importance was the  recruitment exercise embarked upon by the education board in the state. The exercise  has been widely commended by citizens of the state because it was made public, thereby making it possible for all  indigenes of the state with requisite qualification equal opportunity ; secondly, it did not take the usual political cum partisan dimension where political ‘stakeholders’ would hijack it for settlement purposes. This time came the realization that  capacity, competence, age, certificate-related perquisites cannot be compromised if the state must achieve the desired goal in elevating the standard and quality of primary and post-primary education that would stand the test of time. This, indeed, was driven by the chairman and commissioners of the board who are themselves well-heeled professionals. Also, the support of other stakeholders in the state, particularly the political class bears commendation.  Although there were disagreements based on interest, a natural tendency in our political clime, the recruitment exercise was finally conducted with due consideration to qualification and standard.
At the moment, about 1000 primary school teachers have been recruited and are undergoing various stages of documentation after series of oral, written and other forms of interviews were conducted. These and more were done without negating the age factor. This is critical because part of the challenge we have in our system is that there are too many old people who are less able to cope with current realities still engaged in the public service. It is not enough for one to have teaching qualification, but to be nimble enough to work through emerging complexities without being weighed down. The state government is, therefore, urged to sustain the tempo in order to compete with states whose deliberate efforts, guided by the vision for future excellence in education and it’s pivotal role  in societal development, have earned sterling grades in most external examinations viz: WAEC, NECO etc.

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 Ogili writes from Enugu.