EDUCATION stakeholders in Ebonyi have rejected the Federal Government’s proposed scrapping of the 6-3-3-4 education system, advocating improved implementation instead of policy reversal.
The stakeholders, who spoke separately with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abakaliki, described the proposed move as unhealthy for Nigeria’s quest to build a functional and competitive education system.
The respondents maintained that inconsistency in policy implementation had remained one of the greatest obstacles to national development.
A Professor of Educational Administration at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Prof. Chinedu Nwankwo, said the problem with the country’s education system was not the 6-3-3-4 structure but the inability of successive governments to implement it faithfully.
According to him, the policy was designed to produce self-reliant citizens by exposing learners to vocational and technical education from the junior secondary school level.
“The objective was to enable students who may not proceed to senior secondary school or the university to acquire practical skills for employment and entrepreneurship.
“Unfortunately, governments failed to provide the infrastructure, equipment and qualified teachers required to achieve that objective; scrapping the policy will not address those deficiencies,” he said.
Also speaking, a director of academic planning in the Ebonyi Ministry of Education, Mrs Grace Onwe, said frequent changes in education policies had continued to affect long-term planning and sustainable development.
Onwe urged the Federal Government to focus on strengthening existing educational structures through adequate funding, regular teacher training and effective monitoring.
“We should avoid changing policies whenever challenges arise; what is required is commitment to implementation because every reform needs time, resources and consistency to succeed,” Onwe said.
Similarly, the Director of Schools in the Ebonyi Ministry of Education, Mr Sunday Ogbu, said the vocational component of the 6-3-3-4 system was never fully developed across the country.
Ogbu noted that many junior secondary schools lacked functional workshops, laboratories and technical instructors needed to equip learners with practical skills.
“If those facilities had been provided from the beginning, many school leavers would have become skilled artisans and entrepreneurs instead of depending entirely on white-collar jobs,” he said.
On her part, a Professor of Curriculum Studies at Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Prof. Ngozi Enyi, described policy consistency as a critical ingredient for educational development.
Enyi said countries with successful education systems achieved remarkable results because they sustained well-designed policies over time.
She advised the Federal Government to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the current system before introducing another educational structure.
She explained that the high rate of out-of-school children across states of the federation adduced as reason for the proposed scrapping of the system was not due to the 6-3-3-4 structure.
“The high rate of school dropouts or the out-of-school children is not as a result of the practice of the 6-3-3-4 as claimed by the Minister of Education, Mr Tunji Alausa, it’s an institutional problem,” Enyi said.
Also reacting, a member of the Students’ Union Government of EBSU, Mr Emmanuel Eze, appealed to the Federal Government to engage students, teachers and education experts before taking a final decision.
According to him, students are more concerned about improved learning facilities, functional laboratories, modern technology and quality teaching than changes in educational structures.
The stakeholders unanimously maintained that the 6-3-3-4 education system was introduced to provide six years of primary education, three years of junior secondary education, three years of senior secondary education and a minimum of four years of tertiary education.
They recalled that one of its major objectives was to produce graduates with vocational and technical skills capable of creating jobs and contributing to national economic growth.
The respondents, however, observed that inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, shortage of technical teachers and weak implementation had prevented the policy from achieving its intended goals.
They urged the Federal Government to retain the system, strengthen its implementation and invest more in technical and vocational education instead of reverting to another educational framework.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the proposed reform aimed at scrapping off the 6-3-3-4 by the federal government has continued to attract reactions from stakeholders across the country.
They insisted that effective implementation of existing policies remained the key to improving learning outcomes and national development. (NAN)
