I am passionate about SDG-4- achieving quality education, just like you, and particularly about the important role of law and policy in achieving quality education. Today, I will be discussing how we can use law, policy and good governance to achieve the kind of education we want and need. The body of laws that govern the education sector is referred to as education law.
One of my strongest convictions is that laws and policies are the best tools to universalise best practices in any field. If we are going to ensure that everyone gets access to quality education and that we eliminate the out-of-school children phenomenon in Nigeria, we have to compel action and not just encourage it as is done in countries like the United States of America, among others. Failure to do so leads to isolated successes amid widespread failures.
This process involves three essential steps: making, promoting, and enforcing the law. Making laws must involve research to ensure they fit our needs and socio-cultural context. However, this is often lacking in Nigeria due to an ingrained habit of copying and pasting foreign laws with little or no adjustment.
The law-making process should also be inclusive with input drawn from all relevant stakeholders such as government officials, edtech providers, civil society organisations, school owners, teachers and other school workers, parents and even students. This ensures that the law is grounded in true reality and aligns with international best practices.
The making of the law is to be followed by its dissemination to all relevant stakeholders. This step is, however, poorly executed, especially in the education sector as research shows that many relevant stakeholders are unaware of numerous laws governing the education sector in Nigeria.
The last step is the implementation of the law by government agencies and the court. However, challenges such as poor funding, lack of adequate and qualified personnel, corruption and mismanagement, and legal loopholes have greatly limited the law’s impact at this level.
For example, although the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act provides that parents who fail to send their children to school should be punished and the Local Government Education Authority should be responsible for implementing this, this is rarely done in practice contributing to a very high rate of out-of-school children in the country.
All these issues stem from one core problem: the absence of political will by the government to make a change and there is only one way out: collective effort by all relevant stakeholders, all of us, you and me, through advocacy and action driven by an unbridled passion and desire for change, growth and development.
The drive seen in the demand for a new copyright law in the last century must be replicated here, by you and me. Dear reader, I leave you with these words: you are the change you desire
