The National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) became operational in 2021 to fill a long-standing regulatory gap in Nigeria’s senior secondary education sector. The Commission’s Executive Secretary, Dr Iyela Ajayi, recently shared insights with NewsNGR on the organisation’s progress since his appointment in June last year and its plans for secondary education in the upcoming year.
How important is the Commission to secondary education in Nigeria?
You will recall that in the year 2004, the government decided to disarticulate secondary education by removing the junior secondary component and merging it with the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC. Now, from that time onwards, UBEC became the regulatory agency for basic and junior secondary education and also became the intervention agency for basic education.
And of course, the implication of that was that senior secondary education was left in the cold without a regulatory agency and intervention agency. For instance, universities had the National Universities Commission (NUC) as a regulatory agency. Colleges of Education had NCCE, National Commission for Colleges of Education, and of course, Polytechnic also had the NBTE, the National Board for Technical Education. Now, tertiary education also has an intervention agency, and of course, that is TETFund. Now, senior secondary education has become the only sub-sector of the Nigerian educational system without a regulatory agency and an intervention agency, and that has serious implications.
What it meant was that senior secondary education became what one might describe as an orphan, and it was completely neglected. Nobody cared for senior secondary education, and that has serious implications for that sub-sector in the sense that without a regulatory agency, without an intervention agency, what you now had was a situation whereby you had decayed infrastructure, inadequate facilities, the teacher problem, teacher problem in terms of quantity, in terms of quality, low achievement rate of students, the problem of social vices became worsened, and so on.
Although, as far as I’m concerned, senior secondary education is the most important and it is the most vital up to date because it is at that level that character is formed or moulded. It is at that level that skills are developed. Senior secondary education, of course, is the bridge between basic education and tertiary education. That bridge must be strengthened. If you destroy that bridge, it will have serious implications for the future of education in this country. Now, when the government realised the decay going on in that sub-sector, and when the government also realized the importance of the sub-sector, the government felt that something must be done to arrest the situation. That was why the government now intervened by establishing the National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC) to serve as the regulatory agency for senior secondary education and, of course, the intervention agency.
What are the mandates of the Commission?
One of the mandates of the Commission is to prescribe and impose minimum standards. We were not only given the power to prescribe but we were also given the power to enforce it. Now, again, we are supposed to formulate policies for senior secondary education in this country, of course, with the approval of the government.
That, we are doing. Then, this commission is also charged with the responsibility of organising capacity building for teachers of senior secondary schools. Not only teachers but of course, non-teachers at the same time.
The Commission also has the mandate of collecting data on senior secondary education in this country. This Commission also has the mandate of promoting inclusive education. We are talking about the people with special needs, the girl child, and so on.
Then, of course, very important, the area of intervention. Because we are not only a regulatory agency, we are also an intervention agency.
We are expected to function the same way as UBEC. You know, the Act establishing UBEC has committed the government to giving UBEC 2 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. By the Act establishing this Commission, we are also expected to receive 2 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
Part of this money is supposed to go to the states to carry out infrastructural development and to provide facilities in their schools. And they are going to pay just a minimal counterpart fund of 5 per cent, and not 50 per cent like UBEC. So, in a nutshell, these are some of the mandates. We have about 22 mandates.
How far have you gone in achieving some of these mandates?
We’ve gone very far. Within one year of my appointment, we have done marvellously.
Before I arrived on this commission, it was only senior secondary education that did not have minimum standards. So, what it meant is that things were just going on without regulation. You see this state government doing this and that, different policies and so on. We have prepared a document of minimum standards. That document was validated by all the stakeholders, commissions of education, NGOs, and development partners. I think that was in February this year or so.
When you want to produce a policy document, it has to go through different stages.
From there, the document was taken to the JCCE, that is, the Joint Consultative Committee on Education. That committee approved it. The last bus stop was at the National Council on Education (NCE).
You know quite all right that the National Council on Education is the highest policy-making body as far as education is concerned in this country. And the National Council on Education, at its meeting in September, approved that document on minimum standards. I’m happy to inform you that that document right now is with the publishers, and we are hoping that before Christmas, the document will be out, after Christmas, the expectation is that we are going to organise a stakeholders’ meeting. At that meeting, the Honourable Minister is expected to launch that document and also give further instructions.
Now, one of our mandates is to formulate policies on senior secondary education, but with the approval of the federal government. We have done that. I’m happy to inform you that we have produced a document called the National Policy on Senior Secondary Education.
That is the first of its kind in this country. We have not only produced that document, but we also have the implementation guidelines. The documents are there, published already and it has been circulated among all the states of this country. And some of the states have even started implementing the content of that document.
What about the issue of data collection and capacity building?
Now, in the area of data collection, I’m happy to inform you that, to the best of my knowledge, this commission has the latest, the most current data on all aspects. This commission has the latest, not even NBS, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, has it.
Now, in the area of capacity building, of course, we have organised capacity building for teachers in the six geopolitical zones, but with our focus on English and mathematics, because we know that English and Mathematics are the core subjects. If you fail English and Mathematics, you cannot progress educationally.
How do you intend to ensure that that all these policies are implemented?
We have also organised advocacy visits to support the implementation of the Safe School Initiative.
We have also organised advocacy, and sensitization visits to states, the 36 states of this country, to also support the implementation of the SBMCs. Then, of course, I have visited state governors, because what the Act also says is that for any state to benefit from our intervention, they must have established their boards. They must replicate these Commissions in their states, even though their own would not be known as Commission, but as boards.
I’m happy that, as a result of my visit to the States, I met with the governors. Many states have now established their boards. The latest was Kogi State. I think as at the last count, I think about 20 or so.
We have also embarked on what we call monitoring of learning achievement because we want to know the extent to which our children are achieving in the classroom. We just organised one recently, and it involves the SS1 and SS2 students. We want to know their performance in English and Mathematics.
If the performance is low, of course, we are bound to ask questions. Why is it low? Is it because the teachers are not qualified? Is it because the facilities are not there? Is it because of the teaching methods? And so on. After asking these questions, I will know why the learners are not achieving. We will now begin to look at how to resolve the problems. We have done that already. Of course, we have also embarked on monitoring and evaluation of schools. That one is ongoing. That one is more holistic. And so many others.
We have also introduced journal publications and public lecture series. We have even introduced the ranking of senior secondary schools in this country. If the NUC, the National Universities Commission, can rank universities, what stops us? And we are going to base the ranking on benchmarks of performance. In other words, when we go around the schools to enforce minimum standards, for instance, there will be scoring.
If your score is very high, we will give you A, B, and so on. So that parents will know, if you are sending your child to this school, you know the implications of sending your child to this secondary school. And so on. We have that plan. And of course, we will implement it.
What are your plans to ensure that private schools follow the laid down standards?
For private schools, we cannot do without them. The truth of the matter is that we cannot do without the private schools. And so today, we have about 50,000 senior secondary schools in this country, and I want to tell you that at least 80 per cent of them, between 70 and 80 per cent, are controlled by the private sector. And I have visited many of these private schools. Some of their proprietors have been saying ‘ES, it seems you were appointed to come and fight us.’ I said no. If private schools constitute up to 80 per cent of senior secondary schools in this country, it means that we must not only focus on the public schools, but we must also focus on the private schools. Or else we will just be picking about the bush. I have visited many of these schools bearing ‘International School’. The only thing international about it is just that ‘International.’ They have ramshackle buildings. The teachers are not qualified. You pay a graduate teacher N10,000, there is no motivation. And let us not deceive ourselves. Many of these private schools are centres of exam malpractices during public examinations. And I told them that we are coming. I know people are saying, ‘ES, you know, it is easy for universities, for instance, to go around all the universities, because the total number of universities we have as of today, they are not up to 300.
It is easy for NBTE, for instance, to visit all the polytechnics in this country, because the polytechnics today, there are about 180. It is easy for NCCE to visit the Colleges of Education because they are not more than 200. How will you be able to cope with 50,000 schools? I said ‘Don’t worry. We have our plans.’ If your school is located in the creeks, where you think we cannot get to, we will get to that place. If your school is located in remote areas of this country, I can assure you that we will get to those places.
Now, and when the time comes, we are going to write officially to the government on what to do with those schools. We have not taken that decision yet. We will only take that decision on sanctioning them.
After we have distributed the minimum standards, we will now ask them to go and implement the content of the minimum standards. If your teachers are not qualified, please recruit qualified teachers. If you do not have the facilities, we will then give you maybe six months to comply.
After these six months, we will now go around to enforce compliance. And if you fail to comply, of course, that decision on the sanction will be taken by the board, and of course, the final approval will be given by the Federal Minister of Education. Will the schools be closed down or not? I will leave that decision for now. I don’t want to pre-empt the decision that will be taken.
Are you addressing the issue of private schools charging high fees while underpaying teachers, and its impact on student performance?
Yes, the new Honorable Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, is interested in staff welfare. He’s interested in two things: The capacity building of teachers, and also the motivation of teachers. He has personally said it in the open. And I want to assure you that as far as this Commission is concerned, part of our focus for next year is to see that teachers in our secondary schools are motivated in one way or the other. Now, how about the private schools? This is an issue which, of course, we are going to write a memo on, because the Honorable Minister of Education is passionate about teachers. Because he is somebody who believes that, yes, you can have the best facilities, you can have structures, but if your teachers are not good, if your teachers are not well trained, teachers are supposed to be curriculum implementers. If they’re not well trained, then of course your curriculum, and your infrastructure are just useless. So the Honorable Minister of Education is passionate about capacity building of teachers and staff welfare. And he has told us to key into it, and that is exactly what we intend to do from next year; staff welfare. Now, if we are doing this, I am sure that we will address the issue of the private schools because it is very shameful that somebody who is a graduate teacher, how do you want him or her to do his best? You pay N10,000, N22,000. No! These teachers have no opportunity for training, attending conferences, or workshops. So I want to assure you that something will be done on that.
What about the revenue for your operations?
This Commission is supposed to operate in the same way as UBEC. It is to be given 2 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, and you know that is a lot of money for intervention because that money is supposed to be used for intervention, but the truth of that matter is that we have not received a kobo. But of course, this year, something happened. The National Assembly observed that among all the Education Agencies, it is only this Commission that is not receiving reasonable funding from the government for intervention. So what they now did was that they now said “Okay, we are going to include your budget, so that you will be able to intervene in about 50 senior secondary schools in this country, and in those schools, we are going to upgrade the facilities, provide lecture halls, laboratories, e-libraries, admin blocks, and so on. Complete upgrading of the schools. 50 of them. As I speak to you, work is ongoing, and by the grace of God, by February. So, as far as intervention is concerned, the government has not released the 2 per cent. But I don’t want to say we are doing badly because if the National Assembly has recognised that ‘Yes, we are not adequately funded,’ and it is prepared to do something, and they went ahead to say ‘Okay, we will provide money for you,’ I think there is hope.
In what areas are you intervening for the 50 schools?
In many areas: provision of classrooms, provision of laboratories, because if you visit many of these schools, many of them don’t even have laboratories, and they offer science subjects. Even those that have the so-called laboratories, have what they call multipurpose labs, in other words, you have only one room, it is for Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Home Economics, and everything, and some of them look like where chickens are reared. I said No! So, we are going to provide well-equipped e-libraries, and administrative blocks, in 50 senior secondary schools in this country. Work has started, and work is ongoing, as I said, maybe around February, when the work must have been completed, then we will invite you and take you around.
The Commission under your watch is partnering with various international organisations including UNICEF and the British Council. How important are these partnerships in advancing your mission?
One of our mandates is to collaborate with NGOs and international development partners to develop senior secondary education. We have done that mainly in the area of capacity building of teachers. This year, we have been able to collaborate with the British Council to train our English teachers. We have been able to collaborate with the American Embassy. So, in the meantime, our collaboration is at the level of the training of our teachers, but the other level of providing money for this and that, no, that has not started yet. It is only AGILE, the World Bank Project, that has provided money to sponsor some of our activities.
What is the commission doing to ensure that teachers are upgraded technologically?
If you have observed, one of the main reasons why the educational systems of America, and Europe, they have well-developed education systems is because they have been able to integrate technology into teaching and learning. The truth is that many of our teachers are still comfortable with the traditional method of teaching. Many of them cannot even operate the computer. That is a fact. Next year, we want to begin to correct that by ensuring that teachers are exposed to digital learning training, and it will be compulsory. We are going to make a recommendation to the Honourable Minister that this training should not only be compulsory, but that there should be certificates given to them, and that the certificates given to them should be part of the documents they should produce for their promotion. When you do that, I can assure you that in the next five years, from our estimate, at least half of our teachers in the senior secondary school will have been able to acquire that training in digital literacy, artificial intelligence, robotics, and so on.
You were given an award as the Best Executive Secretary by the recently. What do you think makes you stand out for that award?
Yes, I was recognised at this year’s Stardom Global Award. Any assignment I am given, the first thing that comes to my mind is, what legacy am I going to leave behind here? That is my number one interest. What legacy? What do I want to be remembered for when I leave here, or when I leave this organization? I have received countless awards, and it is because I always want to leave a legacy, and that is what has been my guiding principle: legacy, legacy and legacy. Of course, I was happy with the award given to me yesterday because when you are given an award, you are given an award for two reasons: it is like a mark of recognition to say, ‘Okay, yes, we recognise what you are doing here. Two, that award is supposed to encourage you to do more. I’m even organising a retreat for my staff, to say “Look, next year, these are what and what and what we must be able to achieve.” What I’m saying is that that desire to leave behind a legacy is what is pushing me.