EDUCATION MEETS POLITICS. (1)
The Tide in the Politics of Education.
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“There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood leads to fortune. Omitted all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and miseries. On such a full sea are afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures”
-William Shakespeare.
The reason political leaders send their children to elite private schools in Nigeria and abroad is because of the poor state of public educational institutions.
Some examples will suffice: inadequate and overstretched lecture halls; inadequateand overstretched student’s hostels; inadequate lecturers’ offices; dilapidated and broken furniture; dry laboratories without reagents; obsolete engineering workshops; empty libraries; abandoned projects; unhygienic toilet facilities; acute water problems; inaccessible access roads; dilapidated medical facilities.
Concerned education stakeholders, with students and staff unions at the frontline, have been fighting unsuccessfully for decades to get political leaders to provide resources for redressing the situation.
Protests, strike actions, shutdowns of institutions and disruptions of academic activities did not change anything. It made the situation worse as the revolving chair of incompetent and corrupt political leadership remained adamant
Education stakeholders have come to the realization that the transformation of the education sector can only be achieved by competent, visionary, ethics-friendly and education-friendly political leadership.
This is why education stakeholders, under the umbrella of Joint Education Stakeholders Action Coalition, JESAC, is rising to leverage their huge population, brain power, networks and organizational skills to bond and work together to elect competent, visionary, ethics-friendly and education-friendly President and other political leaders who can invest the courage, political will and resources needed to transform the education sector.
This is also why JESAC conducted the empirical and objective assessment of education manifestos of frontline Presidential Candidates for the 2023 elections using the JESAC Education Reform Diagnostic Instrument and the presentations of the Candidates at town hall events, unrestricted media interviews, local and international lectures and campaign rallies.
JESAC assessed the presidential candidates based 10 critical factors that define competent, visionary, ethics-friendly and education-friendly political leadership:
1. Content of Manifestos. The extent to which the content of manifestos of the presidential candidates, as their social contract with the electorate, meets the requirements for transforming education when compared with JESAC charter of 100 irreducible minimum reforms needed to reset education.
2. Capacity of the Candidate: Whether the candidate has the mental ability, physical energy, health status, qualification, training and skills to sustain the hard work required to translate the vision embodied in the manifesto into reality
3. Character: The extent to which each candidate is most likely to honestly and reliably implement the education reforms promised in his education manifesto.
4. Inspirational Visionary Leadership: The extent Candidate can inspire respect and followership of Teachers, Lecturers, Students, Education Leaders, Professionals and other Critical Education Stakeholders to buy into, support, participate and work with Mr. President.
5. Zero Corruption Scandals Index: Which Candidate has the least/zero corruption scandals index so that he will not be encumbered by the burden of guilty conscience and fear of blackmail to launch, sustain and enforce policy of zero tolerance for corruption, academic dishonesty, exam malpractice.
6. Positive Presidential Halo Effect Rating: The extent to the perception (or reality) of Mr. President’s character, capacity, integrity, morals, history, past behavior, antecedents and scandals affect the work ethics and patriotism of citizens, followers, staff, associates and public servants. Presidential Halo Effect can be positive or negative. Scandals related to corruption and shady family, education, business, work antecedents translate to negative halo effect.
7. Commitment to Full Academic Freedom: The extent of commitment to liberate tertiary educational institutions from bureaucratic handcuffs and unshackle and empower them with full administrative, operational, financial and academic autonomy and freedom to globally compete for laurels with their counterparts
8. Commitment to Safe Schools: The extent to which the candidate is committed to rescue of all students still being held captive by terrorists; to enforce the domestication and institutionalization of safe school emergency preparedness and response systems; combat sexual abuse and harassment of students; combat campus cultism and stop its alarming spread to primary and secondary schools in schools.
9. Creative Educational Funding Plan: The level of creativity of new educational funding plan in terms structure, institutionalization, sustenance and the multidimensionality required to properly fund education. Willingness to commit substantial portion of funding to make Teachers and Lecturers the No 1 citizen group in Nigeria in terms remuneration, welfare, incentives, honours and awards in recognition of the fact that they are the most powerful instruments of change, the nation’s best and brightest men and women, intellectuals, thinkers of highly specialized skills and reservoir of knowledge and wisdom. That inspired and motivated, they will come out with thunders of big ideas and new paradigms for charting new courses for the country
10. Employability Test: JESAC Employability test deals with the question: “You are one of the owners of a School that is bedeviled with existential cases of systemic corruption, academic dishonesty, examination malpractice and lack of vision. You are a member of the interview committee entrusted with employing a new School Head from a shortlist of four applicants whose profiles are exact replicas of those of Presidential Candidates of APC, PDP, NNPP and LP in terms of character, integrity, capacity, antecedents, honours, awards, scandals, family, academic and work history. Which of the candidates will you employ as a School Head?
JESAC ASSESSMENT RESULT
Each item of assessment has a maximum score of 10 points, making a total of 100 points for the 10 items. The assessment was conducted based on the education manifestos of Presidential Candidates APC, PDP, LP and NNPP for the 2023 elections using the JESAC Education Reform Diagnostic Instrument and the presentations of the Candidates at town hall events, unrestricted media interviews, local and international lectures and campaign rallies. The scores are as follows.
Peter Obi (Presidential Candidate of Labour Party): 88 points.
Rabiu Kwankwaso (Presidential Candidate of New Nigeria Peoples Party) : 63 points.
Atiku Abubakar (Presidential Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party): 44 points.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu (Presidential Candidate of All Progressive Congress Party): 32 points.
JESAC Assessment reported the facts as distilled and rated from education manifestos and presentations at town hall events, unrestricted media interviews, local and international lectures and campaign rallies.
Members of the assessment committee include Ibrahim Jamiu, Rasheed Abiodun, Sam Orji, Yama Enahoro, Chima Obike, Jane Idemudian and Ike Onyechere, MFR.
Education Stakeholders are encouraged to vote based on their consideration of the facts. All citizens of Nigeria are stakeholders in the education system. However the responsibility to push for the resolution of the challenges education rests with critical stakeholders including every worker in public and private pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions, proprietors, administrators, parents, students, teachers, lecturers, staff unions and associations, Student Union Governments, PTAs, alumni associations, professional associations.
With the new electoral law that offers the promise of making all votes to count, the more than 30 million voting education stakeholders constitute the new political game changers for electing competent, visionary, ethics-friendly and education-friendly President. Provided you do three things.
1. You cast your vote
2. You cast your vote for the best candidate based on facts.
3. You join in mobilizing your members, colleagues, friends and associates to also vote for the best candidate based on facts using the JESAC 5 Minutes Teacher Mobilization Strategy in any and every class, lecture, assembly, seminar, workshop, conference, meeting, rally, party, campaign and event you find yourself.
The time to think, decide and act to save education is now. The suffering imposed by dysfunctional education is universal. It affects each and every one of us irrespective of our origin, region, tribe, religion or politics.
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Ike Onyechere, MFR.
Convener, Joint Education Stakeholders Action Coalition, JESAC.
