The House of Representatives Wednesday has said the government should declare an emergency in the country’s education sector.
The lawmakers urged the Federal Ministry of Education, The National Universities Commission (NUC), and the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE) to carry out a holistic reform that would make Nigeria’s tertiary institutions internationally competitive, and support its national Economic Development and Growth Plan.
The resolution of the House was sequel to a motion by a member, Hon. Ayodele Oladimeji (Ekiti) on the need to reform Nigeria’s tertiary education system.
The Green Chamber also resolved to set up an eleven man adhoc committee to interact with stakeholders in the sector to examine the issues.
The House also decided to have a one week education summit slated for January, 2019.
The lawmaker told the House that being the fulcrum of national growth and development, the strategic importance of education cannot be over emphasized.
He opined that human capital is developed for social economic and technological transformation and advancement of any nation through tertiary education.
He said 75,000 Nigerians are currently studying in Ghana, Benin Republic, and Egypt, amongst others, adding that Nigeria loses a minimum of N1trillion to education tourism annually.
The dwindling quality of education in the country, he said, is the reason people seek for quality education outside the country.
The lack of quality makes the country’s graduates unemployable, he said, adding that no fewer than eight million graduates in the country moved into the labour market every year looking for non-existent jobs.
The lawmakers noted that there’s need for urgent reform in the sector or Nigerians will keep expending foreign exchange in financing education outside the country.
Many lawmakers contributed to the motion and they all agreed something must be done to rectify the situation condemned the poor approaches employed towards solving the educational sector problems.
The Deputy Speaker, Yussuff Lasun said the abandonment of the sector, has crippled the educational system in the country.
“There must be reform to salvage it,” he said.
Femi Gbajabiamila, the House Leader, noted that dearth of infrastructure was killing the sector, “Lecturers and teachers can’t give their best in such a situation,” he said.
Hon. Chika Adamu from Niger state, blamed government appointees and politicians including President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly for the downturn in the Nation’s education sector.
According to him, they’re all hypocrites, who send their children abroad to school, while paying lip service to reforms in the sector.
When the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara called for a voice vote, it was passed by a majority of members.