Former Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, and former Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, have blamed the collapse in the education sector on policymakers who failed to ensure that policies are implemented.

Speaking at the send-off party in honour of the outgoing Director/Principal, Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Yaba, Rev. Chris Ugorji, Prof. Obaji said government needs to get serious and stop paying lip service to education, especially the technical aspect so that Nigeria can move forward.

She said “We are facing the problem of policy implementation as we are in the habit of starting something and fail to implement or follow through when implemented.

“We organise a lot of summits but fail to turn the ideas generated to produce the desired results. We should start being serious with technology so as to be at par with the rest of the world.

“In the past, technical schools used to produce simple tools and equipment but that is not the case now. The world is changing and Nigeria can’t move forward without technology.

“In 2005, as the Minister of Education, I came up with the One laptop per child initiative because at that basic education level, children should have access to laptops. Then, the laptops cost $100 with an exchange rate of N120/$, so it would have cost N12,000 per laptop.

“I was the international chair of that project and Nigeria was to take delivery of one million laptops to start with. N12,000 for a Nigerian child wasn’t too much for a then oil-rich country but I left office and that was the end of that project. Those laptops were delivered but found their ways into other countries.

“Then, technical students of this school produced dustbins, many people in Lagos brought their cars here for painting, the school imported completely knocked down tricycles and reassembled them while some oil companies had names of the technical students for immediate employment. If we had continued with that, we would have gone far.”

In the same vein, a former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr. Nwabiala, said he would score the nation’s quest for technological advancement low because policymakers have failed in that quest.

He said “Policymakers place a lot of emphasis on certificates, while little attention is placed on acquisition of skills and techniques. Back in the day, there were a lot of craft schools and vocational centers, which are very scarce today. This has affected us negatively because the number of young and intelligent graduates roaming the streets in search of jobs would have reduced if these centers are still functional.

“Though our technical colleges have a lot of challenges as they are not properly funded and lack facilities and teachers, we need to have a rethink and refocus on technological education as the engine room of countries’ development.

“Government should gradually and carefully invest in technological education and also ensure that any money set aside for it is efficiently utilized.”

The outgoing principal, Rev. Chris Ugorji, urged principals of other technical colleges to have clarity of purpose.

“I came here with a purpose and set my heart on achieving them” he said. “You must believe in yourself and be confident, must rise above those you are leading as they look up to you. Technology is very important because without it, one can’t go anywhere.”