Ilorin — A university don, Professor Noah Oyedeji, says Nigeria’s educational policies since the colonial period have been inconsistent, thereby creating confusion.

He chided political leaders who he said were fond of changing policies instead of concentrating on research and the economy. Oyedeji, a Professor of Educational Management, spoke at the 140th inaugural lecture of the University of Ilorin titled, “Education Anomaly and the Educational Administrator” at the weekend.

Noting that right from the colonial period, educational policies have never been stable, he said though educational policies are never static, frequent changes make policies to lose essence.

“Yesterday, the 6-5-2-3 (Primary-Secondary-HSC-University); today, 6-3-3-4 (Primary-JS-SS-University); next day, 9-3-4 (Basic-Secondary-University); and the thinking now is 2-9-3-4 (Nursery i $ ii – Basic-Secondary- University). It seems there is confusion somewhere”, he said.

He said budgetary allocations to education in the past two years had been grossly inadequate and urged the federal government to always set aside 20 per cent of its budget if it cannot comply with the 26 per cent stipulated by UNESCO. He described recurring strikes by teachers and students’ protest anomalies in the education system and called for constant dialogues between government and teachers/students.