The Global Education Experts And Analysts Ranking of the world’s education systems recently, threw up a result that is very predictable.
According to the ranking report the ten countries with the best education systems in descending order are: United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada,France, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden and Denmark.
Without stress even a primary school pupil could easily guess, based on the data above, that education is the secret of the greatness and advancement of those countries.
And that’s the simple truth. Interestingly, the same way the education ranking is, is almost the same way it stands in almost all other spheres of human endeavour: economy, technology, science, military, sports, just to mention a few.
The US and other countries enjoying these glories never did magic, or anything extraordinary to get to where they are now. They just did ordinary things extraordinarily, starting with clear and intentional prioritization and massive investment in education. Obviously, their leaders clearly understood the power in education, and reasoned that if they invest in it, it would in turn make their nations powerful and great, and they did just that.
As we speak,countries working themselves up the ladder of global economic ranking and prosperity, like Vietnam and Philippines for example ,are succeeding because of the serious investment being made in education.
The summary of it all, is that, without quality assured education no society can witness real sustainable growth and development.
So, Nigeria’s uninspiring effort at joining the comity of advanced nations, could rightly be blamed on its failure to make education the cornerstone of that journey. To think of reversing the trend therefore, topmost attention must be given to education. As we look forward and hoping to see the executive arms at all levels, do the needful,it is should be said that some political office holders, like the leaders of the countries with the best education systems, have, within the armbit of their constitutional powers, being paying utmost attention to education growth and development
Distinguished Senator Ezenwa Onyewuchi, who represents Imo East Senatorial District,in the Senate, is one of them. The lawmaker several years ago fashioned out an education roadmap, which underlying vision is to position Owerri Zone as the hub of human capital development. That blueprint was unveiled back in his days in House of Reps, and up till today, he’s still working assiduously at its implementation.
It is worth recalling here that this enduring and skillfully knitted policy was designed then by some of the best academics drawn from tertiary institutions in the state
After the robust implementation of the policy in the lower chamber, Distinguished Senator Onyewuchi did not waste time on landing in the Senate, to resume its implementation. During his first term there,much of the attention was placed on improving education infrastructure, to create conducive environment for teaching and learning
And significant milestone was achieved in the process, as many primary and secondary schools took delivery of brand new classrooms blocks.
As a follow up, attention has now being paid to arguably, the most important component of the education process, which is human capital development, with special emphasis on training, retraining and equipping of teachers and schools with modern tools for today’s teaching and learning.
The very first effort in this direction had been successfully concluded. It was the training of nearly one hundred teachers drawn from schools in the zone on: “New Technologies for Teaching and Learning in Schools.”
After the two months intensive training reminiscent of what we see and hear from advanced nations,as the trainees were fed and paid token daily for transport, the teachers trained were given brand new Samsung Galaxy tablet.
Similarly, the nearly one hundred schools whose staff were trained went home with: laptop, projectors, Smart board Interactive Board, whiteboard and other assortment of teaching and learning aids. Another laudable fallout of the exercise is the fact that right now the trainees are training their colleagues who did not participate in the program in their various schools. At the last count the exercise has been successfully carried out in over fifty schools.
Interestingly, the recent training is the first in a series of such planned by Distinguished Senator Onyewuchi for the year and in the years ahead. Training and retraining of teachers, infrastructure provision in schools and other related education initiatives, such as skills training and empowerment programs, which has added the alias of “Mr Empowerment” to Distinguished Senator Onyewuchi’s name, being carried out regularly by him, are all geared towards realizing his laudable vision for Owerri Zone education system, which is to make Owerri Zone a major hub for semi and highly skilled manpower nationally and globally.
Suffice to point out here that in in pursuit of that enduring objective, and towards making his skills training program more sustainable, the lawmaker has attracted the first ever technology skills training centre to the state. Arguably, the biggest federal presence in the State, outside the state built and later acquired tertiary institutions in the state, when completed, the facility which is nearing completion, will greatly deepen and strengthen successes so far recorded in that area in particular, and his overall education policy in general.
Obviously,with these multiple education strategies, as enunciated in the education and human capital development blueprint of the lawmaker, being executed simultaneously, there’s no doubt that before 2027, significant mileage will have achieved in the realization of the lawmakers vision.
Vision Behind Onyewuchi’s Education Policy For Owerri Zone
