How to achieve SDGs on education, by experts

World leaders recently signed a new agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seeks to learn from and address the gaps, disparities and challenges that remain from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The agenda, adopted in September 2015, includes a set of 17 goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change […]

World leaders recently signed a new agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which seeks to learn from and address the gaps, disparities and challenges that remain from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The agenda, adopted in September 2015, includes a set of 17 goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change by 2030.
SDG4 specifically seeks to address education, which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. It encompasses 10 targets.
Notably on the targets are to ensure access to quality early childhood development; ensure all girls and boys complete free; equitable and quality primary and secondary education; provide affordable and quality technical, vocational education; eliminate gender disparities in education; and increase the supply of qualified teachers amongst other.
At the declaration, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, in a statement said it is a huge step forward and affirms that education is the key to global peace and sustainable development.
“It reflects our determination to ensure that all children and young people gain the knowledge and skills they need to live in dignity; to reach their potential and contribute to their societies as responsible global citizens,” she had said.
Bokova noted that it encourages governments to provide learning opportunities through life, so that people could continue to develop and grow.
Whilst education outcomes cut across the SDGs, experts who spoke at the declaration pointed to the power of education to drive the progress of sustainable development.
“Education has a unique power to catalyse gains in other areas. Very few, if any, health or economic interventions will be sustainable without gains in education,” they said.
Also at the event, the forum participants explained that effective implementation will require strong regional coordination and rigorous monitoring and evaluation of the education agenda.
It will also require more funding, especially for the countries farthest from providing inclusive, quality education, the forum participants said.
Daily Trust sampled opinion of stakeholders on the best way to achieve the target so as not to go the way of the MDGs.
 A former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, said in Abuja, that it was high time universities developed programmes that will be geared towards addressing the issues of SDGs through the Needs Assessment Vote and Grant of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Okojie who noted that education is vital in addressing the SDGs, said: “We need critical mass of knowledgeable individuals that will drive this process and keep the system moving and that should come from the university system.”
The challenges in the system, according to him, which include poverty and agriculture, are all embedded in education. He said that was why the institutions are asked to seek out ways of proffering solutions to it.
“We are advocating a link between the varsities and the industries, there must be incubation setting in that system to help take our result to the end. Sustainability is a socio-economic concept; we decide the parameters that will drive this system and we sit on the driver’s seat,” he said.
A professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Abuja, Salihu Ingawa, said in an interview with Daily Trust that achieving the SDGs requires looking at the challenges of MDGs that have been identified.
Prof Ingawa pointed out that corruption; political risk and discordant coordination are part of the challenges that hindered Nigeria from achieving the MDGs.
“The  MDGs came at a time the level of impunity was beyond control, anything goes, people were just looking for where money was and they took it and no accountability, no due process nor rule of law,” he lamented.
The present government, according to Prof Ingawa, should not allow the politicians to take over things, rather whatever is meant for the technical or professional people, should be handled by them.
In achieving education targets of the SDGs on qualified teachers, he explained that the government already has a document that will add value to teachers’ education in the country, especially the Teachers’ Education Policy that was approved in 2014.
 “The policy has a guideline but it is very expensive but government said it can do it and it brought it to the National Council of Education and approved it,” he said.
He maintained that there are many incentives for pre-service teachers and in-service teachers, development programmes and other incentives for rural teachers so they can feel at ease.
 “The law is there but they refused to follow it because of interest. If they implement the Universal Basic Education (UBE) law, TEP, and empower the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) to enforce the quality of teachers practising, all these NCE teachers that are roaming the streets will get employed, that will be the beginning of wisdom,” he said.
The Dean, Faculty of Communications at Bayero University, Kano, Prof Umaru Pate, said apart from the general objectives set by the United Nations, there are still country specific objectives like the states and local government specific objectives, so there should be a better management of the resources and also the need to train and re-train teachers at the lower level.
“This is important because it is not a matter of creating primary schools but also having qualitative primary schools that will produce quality students,” he said‎.
He maintained that some of the measures taken by the previous government, like the Almajiri programme were not completely successful as desired, saying “there are many gaps in several areas, which means you need higher level of commitments from different levels of government.”
The communities, which will depend on the directions of the government, according to him, must share in the responsibility to achieve the needed success.
An educationist, Sule Ojonugwa, said the issue of corruption should be tackled first and that of check and balancing should be held in high priority too.
Considering the statistics of out of school children in the country, he said if government makes all the necessary provisions and put their feet on the ground to bring out a law that will penalize people whose wards are out of school, “am very sure we can achieve the mandate of the SDGs in a few years.”
However, less has been done in recent times following the long wait for the 2016 budget.
All round contribution from the federal, state and local government levels as well as community participation, according to the experts, will go a long way in putting Nigeria on an inclusive and sustainable course.