Recently, important stakeholders of education gathered in Lagos for a roundtable discussion to identify those factors impeding progress towards the attainment of Education for All by 2015 and to seek ways of rejuvenating the nation's educational system.

From left: Mr. Arne Scheider, Director, Goethe Institut; Mr. Bola Olupohunda and Dr. (Mrs.) Pat Akpomabo, lecturer Yabatech.

At the event, which took place at Goethe Institut, Lagos and was attended by school owners, education agencies, operators of the nation's education, lecturers and well-meaning education individuals, it was unanimously agreed that corruption has been the bane of the country's education sector, a factor which has been frustrating attempts to revamp the sector.

According to Dr. Dayo Olagunju of the National Commission for Mass Education (NCME), some people running the education sector are only interested in what will go to their pockets while planning education budget rather than in using the funds for the develop-ment of the sector.

Dr. Olagunju cited the case of a state which diverted over N40 million, meant for adult literacy programme, to establishing a university. He said, "What becomes of an institution without a solid foundation.

There is no patriotism in this country. Patriotism has taken flight."

Another obstacle in the way of achieving education for all is the poor quality of teachers in the nation's schools. He stressed the need for government to engage in capacity building programmes for teachers, adding that by so doing they will be kept abreast of developments.

Mrs Margaret Yau said the agency she works with, Education for All, has authoritatively established that girls are in the majority of the millions of pupils that are out of the nation's school system. She explained that these girls are mostly found on the streets hawking, adding that the high cost of living and the abject poverty confronting many parents force them to send their children to hawk.

According to her, the wide disparity between the figure of boys and girls going to school is occasioned by the preference of some states of the federation to send only boys to school. She added that some girls have dropped out of school due to the inability of their parents to provide basic materials these girls need at schools.

As a way of forcing these parents to be more interested in sending their children to school, it was suggested that a stiff penalty should be meted out to such parents who treat the education of their children with disdain.

On the call for sanction against parents who shy away from their responsibilities, Mrs Esther Muoka, representing the Forum for African Women Educationlists (FAWE), said, "I would be interested to hear that a parent is jailed for not sending his/her child to school."

To Mrs Azuka Menkiti of the Action Aids Nigeria (AAN) many Nigerian parents in rural communities have no access to free education because of their inability to provide for their children the materials that are needed in the classroom. She stressed the necessity for the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to create more awareness in rural settings about the Universal Basic Education programme which is free and compulsory.

According to Menkiti, "If a lot of pupils that are out of school in rural environment are ignorant of UBE, then of what relevance is UBE"? She explained that the AAN works more in the rural environment which enables it to establish the fact that girls enrolment is as low as 17 per cent.

She called on authorities in the education sector to squarely address the problems that adversely affect the girl-child education.

On her own part, Dr (Mrs) Pat Akpomabo from Yaba College of Technology ascribed the present poor quality of the country's education to the incessant disruption of the school system, the constant power failure and the poor funding of the sector.

According to Akpomabo, "In times past, children could read and write but today, it is not so." She therefore reiterated the need to constantly retrain teachers as they are not impacting quality knowledge to the pupils as they should be doing, adding that this is necessary because some of the pupils are more knowledgeable about happenings in the world than their teachers.

Dr. Akpomabo berated a situation whereby many teachers neither do not read books or newspapers nor browse the Internet. She said further that most teachers are near illiterates as they are not interested on improving themselves but are only interested in their monthly salary.

The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Modibo Mohammed said that the low level of commitment of some state governments and agencies to the UBE programme has been affecting basic education in the country.

Represented by Professor Charles Onocha, Dr. Mohammed said there must be total commitment of federal and state governments as well as policy makers at all levels to the programmes, adding that apart from meeting their obligations to the UBE, state governments should be responsible for retraining of teachers, which is the practice in developed countries.

Participants at the round-table conference unanimously suggested that community people should monitor closely the way funds voted for education are utilized to prevent cases of diverting funds to private pockets.

They want every aspect of the education sector to be given equal attention. They decried a situation whereby people who are not educationists are establishing private schools, adding that everything should be done to make public schools more attractive to parents than private schools which is the practice in developed countries.