From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
The Director General of NIgeria Institute of Policy and Strategic studies, kuru Jos, Professor Ayo Omotayo has called for the rejig of the policy of 6:3:3:4 of our education sector to meet the present realities in order to move the nation forward
The DG, noted that the initial concept of the policy was to be a blend of students with bias for technical, vocational,and technology education with those with flair for academics , lamenting that poor funding has altered the policy, thereby stunting the educational progress of the country.
He said, although the policy is still running , it has deviated from the original concept as poor funding has affected it’s continued relevance, saying, government should either scrapped it , or put measures in place to rejig the programme.
Professor Omotayo made the call at the 5th Distinguished lecture series with the theme” Policy Summersault: The bane of development in Public Sector ” organised by the Federal University Lokoja.
He stated that for the policy to be effective through all the governments in power should endeavour to codify policies into law as a means for the citizenry to hold government accountable for its breach.
He added that enacting policies without backing it by law was the major causes for policy abandonment and Summersault, leading to loss of resources and people’s discontentment with government programmes.
The erudite professor, explained that certain factors such as political consideration, geography , religion, funding and issue of corruption should be taking into cognisance to avoid failures, stressing that most policies are formulated without considering these variables, causing distortion and ineffectiveness of the policy.
He noted that in as much as the people at the grassroots and target audience of the policy are necessary to be consulted, lack of awareness and low intellectual capacity have alway been the bane for consultation.
He identified lack of idealogy by political parties and poor biases of leadership to issues and projects always fueled policy failures, but stressed that policy summersault has both positive and negative impact on the society.
” Policy can Summersault to correct a poorly formulated policy. Constantly, policy needs to be reviewed to measure its impact on the people and if it is discovered that it was not meeting the objectives and yearnings of the people it should be either discontinued or modified”
Professor Omotayo, however , called on the people to elect those with capacity and capabilities to position of authorities, disclosing that corruption in high places of the society is caused by mental laziness and greed.
He said the issue of corruption in Nigeria should not be a blame game as every one is involved at every level and magnitude and called for social and spiritual rebirth.
He tasked political parties to ensure a vibrant political ideaology that separate one from the other , stressing that most manifestoes of the parties cannot be translated into policies as there are mere opinions which cannot be held accountable.
He commended the management of the federal university lokoja, for the institution of distinguish lecture series which has brought together the gowns and towns and urged for a sustained effort in profering solutions to societal challenges.
Meanwhile, the vice chancellor of the University, Professor Olayemi Akinwunmi, said the topic of the lecture was carefully selected as the nation is faced with multiple policy failures that has dotted the length and breadth of the country with abandoned projects and programmes.
He charged every one to contribute his or her quota to the development of the nation, saying the challenges facing the nation is surmountable and urged the students to develop mindsets that will transform the nation.
He commended the guest lecturer for the thought provoking scholarly treatment of the subject matter , assuring that the university will continue to keep the lecture