Policy inconsistency: the silent killer of Nigeria’s education system, experts warn

LAGOS — Policy inconsistency has emerged as the silent killer of Nigeria’s education system, systematically dismantling the country’s technological vision and skills pipeline over decades, two eminent thought leaders warned at the weekend.

Emeritus Professor Michael Abiola Omolewa, OON, and Chief Tola Adeniyi (Akogun) made the charge during the Fourth Edition of the ValidViewNetwork Monthly Global Discourse, held virtually on Sunday, 27 September 2026.

The session, themed “The Lost Promise of 6-3-3-4: Can Nigeria Still Recover Its Technological Vision?”, brought together policymakers, educators, curriculum planners, youth leaders, industry stakeholders and civic actors to examine the collapse of technical education and its consequences for national development.

The 6-3-3-4 system, conceived in 1982, was designed as a transformative structure to equip Nigerian youth with practical, technical and vocational skills for industrialisation. It rested on five foundational strengths: harmonised years of schooling across regions, broad stakeholder consultation, strong government investment in technology and specialised institutions, an embedded guidance-and-counselling framework, and a national ambition to build export-ready technical capacity.

Professor Omolewa traced how the reform began with unusual promise. The military government of the time delegated its design to educationists rather than imposing it from above. Yet that promise was quickly undermined. The 1979 civilian administration moved education to the concurrent legislative list, fragmenting implementation across federal and state levels. The 1983 military return reinstated 6-3-3-4 on paper but repeatedly diluted it through structural alterations, including conversion to a 6-9-4 model and the renaming of the Nigerian Educational Research Council as the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council.

“Frequent changes in government priorities, abrupt curriculum shifts and the absence of long-term implementation frameworks weakened the original vision and disrupted continuity,” the discourse highlighted. The result, the experts argued, was the neglect and eventual collapse of technical colleges that had been intended as the backbone of the nation’s technological future.

Chief Adeniyi linked the policy failures to deeper cultural and societal attitudes that devalued vocational skills in favour of university credentials, parental resistance to technical streams, and the “oil doom” culture that followed the petroleum boom. Together, these forces shifted Nigeria from a skills-driven educational vision toward theory, credentialism and chronic under-investment in technical capacity.

ADVERTISEMENT

The discussants called for concrete remedies. Chief among them is the establishment of a National Education Continuity Act to shield reforms from political disruptions and guarantee stability, consistency and measurable progress across successive administrations. Other recommendations included revitalising technical colleges through targeted funding, modern equipment and industry partnerships; committing a fixed, protected percentage of GDP to education; reshaping public perception of vocational careers through national campaigns; ending the quota system and federal character in admissions in favour of merit; and appointing only qualified ministers of education whose credentials are publicly vetted.
They also urged the adoption of the 3H framework — Hand, Heart, Head — to replace the narrower 3R model, greater use of mother-tongue instruction in early years, restoration of practical skills training (electrical work, plumbing, carpentry) for every student, and institutionalised industry-school collaboration.

“Nigeria’s technological future is not lost,” the discourse concluded. “It is waiting to be reclaimed through deliberate policy, cultural reorientation and sustained investment in technical education.”

ValidViewNetwork, founded by Dr Kayode Ogunjobi, FHEA, FFAN, expressed appreciation to participants and announced the Fifth Edition for Sunday, 25 October 2026. The platform continues its commitment to evidence-based civic engagement and national development.