Leonard Karshima Shilgba –

Contained in the Renewed Hope 2023 vision document of President-elect Bola Tinubu is his Education Agenda (contained on pages 40-43), with the motto: “Enlightened minds, an essential pillar of development”. I view this agenda as simply a screenshot of Tinubu’s intentions on education, an education compass, not a detailed proclamation of how he plans to translate intentions to implementation, the action schedules of his intended reforms, and the buy-in coordination strategies with the subnational governments.

In this part of my serialized essays on the subject, I explore and analyze certain constitutional boundaries that Tinubu administration must respect, existing education agencies’ Acts of the National Assembly that the administration could leverage after requisite legislative amendments to accord with germane constitutional provisions, and the regular traps it must dodge toward leaving the Nigerian education system better (however “better” is defined) than it met it.

In the Renewed Hope 2023 document, under the subtitle “Accreditation Standards and Curriculum” of the Education Agenda, it is stated:

“New accreditation standards will be developed for all institutions, from the primary to the tertiary level. All institutions of learning in Nigeria will eventually be required to comply with the new standards after a reasonable period of adjustment.

“A permanent Committee composed of representatives of the private sector and leaders in the educational sector will be created. The Committee will be tasked with establishing a curriculum that more closely matches educational instruction with the actual and projected needs of the private sector. In this way, more students will be equipped with the skill sets that will shape the economy for years and decades to come.

“A modern standard curriculum will be developed and implemented in all primary and secondary schools throughout the country. This will ensure that all students have comparable experiences no matter their geographical location, and that national education objectives are being met in all government schools. Adherence to the curriculum will be an important factor in the accreditation of learning institutions.

“The curriculum shall promote national unity and pride. Nigerian history will be reintroduced to [in] our classrooms. Indigenous language courses will be compulsory for all children [all] through [to] the completion of secondary school.”

First, I need to remind that Nigeria is a federal republic with federating units or subnational governments with substantial constitutional powers to make laws regulating education within their jurisdiction. Therefore, old habits, practices, procedures, or processes which in the past were permitted in national conduct in constitutional error, even with established federal agencies regulating such errant habits, practices, procedures, or processes, should be torn down. And who is better equipped to preside over a new dawn of constitutional compliance in Nigeria than President-elect Tinubu, an advocate of “true federalism”? President Tinubu must not push through an education agenda in a manner that violates constitutional liberties and prerogatives given to subnational governments. Let me cite four relevant items (items 27 to 30) in the Concurrent Legislative List of Nigeria’s Constitution (as amended), in the Second Schedule:

27. The National Assembly shall have [power] to make laws for the Federation or any part thereof with respect to university education, technological education or professional education as may from time to time be designated by the National Assembly.

28. The power conferred on the National Assembly under paragraph 27 of this item shall include power to establish an institution for the purposes of university, post-primary [post-secondary], technological or professional education.

29. Subject as herein provided, a House of Assembly shall have power to make laws for the State with respect to the establishment of an institution for purposes of university, technological or professional education.

30. Nothing in the foregoing paragraphs of this item shall be construed so as to limit the powers of a House of Assembly to make laws for the State with respect to technical, vocational, post-primary, primary or other forms of education, including the establishment of institutions for the pursuit of such education.

Plain reading of the items above (particularly, item 30) makes it abundantly clear that the Federal Government of Nigeria does not have the constitutional power to forge a “modern standard curriculum”, which “will be developed and implemented in all primary and secondary schools throughout the country”, and to unilaterally enforce “new accreditation standards” which “will be developed for all institutions, from the primary to the tertiary level” by it. In fact, it is unthinkable in a truly Nigerian federation that “all institutions of learning in Nigeria will eventually be required to comply with the new standards” even “after a reasonable period of adjustment”! I should bring to the attention of President-elect Tinubu the truth that either the Acts setting up some of the twenty-three (23) agencies within or linked to the Federal Ministry of Education need to be amended, or some of those agencies, being unnecessary, must be scrapped or melded together with new and constitutional mandates, because their existence conflicts with items 29 and 30 cited above.  Almost all of those agencies were established during the military regimes that ruled over Nigeria, all under a unitary form of government. We need to examine the Acts under which each agency under the Federal Ministry of Education operates, and amend those that have taken over part of the constitutional powers of State Governments.  For instance, the National Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), established in 1988, is charged with “implementing educational policies in Nigeria” on behalf of the subnational governments, but without their input! The Law establishing the NERDC provides that the Council, among others, shall:

• Promote the development of curricula at all levels of the educational system;
• Develop new techniques and approaches to curriculum development;
• Produce syllabuses and instructional materials…

I have selected only the above portions of the curriculum development responsibility of NERDC relevant to the focus of my essay. For Nigeria to make rapid progress in educational curriculum development and delivery, States, Local, and City governments must be allowed the latitude to develop curriculum for their schools. Yes, a minimum national standard could be required; however, a significant chunk of school curriculum should be developed by subnational governments, in accordance with their evolving needs, values, and vision of the future. Too much centralization, equalization, and emphasis on uniformity over diversity and variety have been obstacles to Nigeria’s education development. President Tinubu should appoint a Supervising Minister of the Federal Ministry of Education who is knowledgeable, could courageously carry out the reforming, pruning, and melding work under the law (including coordinating the review of the Acts establishing all education parastatals under the ministry), and has the capacity to execute the Tinubu education reforms. Besides, chief executive officers and chairmen of the governing boards of all education agencies should be persons who are knowledgeable, and who have demonstrated vision and skill in education management. We cannot expect the desired transformation in our education outcomes if the persons driving the process lack those qualities.

 Secondly, we don’t need a “permanent Committee” on curriculum development. We must encourage statutory agencies to work instead of handing over their responsibilities to “committees”.  As proposed above, after amending the Acts setting up certain agencies in the Federal Ministry of Education in order to accord with relevant constitutional provisions and disrobe them of the aura of military regimentation, the task of developing MINIMAL core curriculum standards should be entrusted to one of them without duplication by other agencies, while subnational governments should develop their own curricula to suit their vision, peculiarities, culture, and needs, having regard to the MINIMAL core curriculum (which shouldn’t constitute more than fifty per cent of the entire curriculum, and developed with inputs from all subnational governments and selected professionals in the country). The Federal Government should provide grants and rewards to subnational governments based on the performance of their schools in national examinations such as JAMB-administered UTME. Pre-determined metrics would need to be set.

At the university level, the National Universities Commission (NUC), having realized the need to let each university within the Nigerian University System (NUS) develop unique courses for its degree programs, has allowed Nigerian universities to develop thirty percent of the course offerings for each degree program they offer (which they are currently doing this year), while the NUC has developed seventy per cent already of the Core Curriculum of Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS). Accordingly, an undergraduate student in degree Program A at a university in Nigeria may take courses which are different from his colleague studying within the same Program A at another Nigerian university. The objective is to instigate novelty, creativity, uniqueness, and innovation in curriculum development in a competitive manner; and the plan is to gradually let individual universities grow their contributory portion over time. This is the way to go—making curriculum development practically inclusive. The Tinubu Education Agenda (TEA) must be made more tasty and inviting than the ones heretofore.

Thirdly, why must a student earn (at least) credit passes in at least five (5) subjects in certain national examinations in order to be admitted into a tertiary institution in Nigeria, even though s/he is ALSO required to sit for four courses (including English Language) in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) administered by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)? Why don’t we phase out NECO and WAEC Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE), and only require a student to sit for JAMB-UTME in English Language and the three (3) subjects needed in their preferred program (degree, diploma, or NCE) at the tertiary level? Passing scores should be made to be at least 50 per cent in each of the four subjects. We may retain NABTEB’s National Business Examination (NBE) and National Technical Examination (NTE) because of their business and technical/vocational components. For admission into tertiary institutions, post-primary school transcripts could be requested along with results on UTME (which should be valid for at least three years) by those institutions to make informed admission decisions. We should not subject candidates to so many national examinations.

Under “Special Education Fund” section of the Renewed Hope 2023 document, it is stated as follows: “For the near and medium term, the government must provide the bulk of funding for our tertiary institutions. Through new legislation, government will establish a special education fund consisting of zero coupon federal bonds. Through various mechanisms, bonds will be sold in tranches to private investors or purchased in market clearing exercises by the CBN. This will help fund the universities while reducing the per capita tuition cost increase felt by the average student.” This idea is beautiful; and I agree that new legislation is needed to improve, not only the amount of funds available to the federal government to fund tertiary education, but also to improve the management of such funds. However, the new legislation should not lead to the establishment of “a special education fund” (which would add to the recurrent budget of the government). The Tinubu administration should take a close look at the Act establishing the Tertiary Education Fund (TETFUND), and review the statutory sources and management of the fund to achieve the beautiful education funding and support ideas captured in the Renewed Hope 2023 document.

In the sequel to this essay, I shall examine and discuss the implementation of the education funding and support vision in the Tinubu Education Agenda (TEA). Let me leave you with a teaser:  Bonds are securities just like stocks, but with three components—principal (face value of the bonds), coupon rate (percentage of the principal, called “bond yield”,  to be paid back to the investors at maturity, as interest), and maturity date (the date on which the principal must be paid by the bond issuer to the bond buyer or investor; interest payments are made by the bond issuer to the buyer while still holding the principal until this maturity date when the principal must be paid). Under a zero coupon rate regime, what must the Tinubu government do to attract buyers to the intended “zero coupon federal bonds”?

Keep tuned!

Leonard Karshima Shilgba is a mathematics professor, administrator, and curriculum development expert:  shilgba@yahoo.com