Education stakeholders in Ebonyi State have opposed the Federal Government’s proposed scrapping of the 6-3-3-4 education system, insisting that the nation’s education challenges stem from poor implementation rather than the policy itself.
The stakeholders, who spoke in separate interviews in Abakaliki, argued that abandoning the long-standing educational framework would not address the underlying problems affecting Nigeria’s education sector.
They maintained that policy inconsistency has continued to hinder sustainable educational development and urged the Federal Government to focus on strengthening the existing system instead of introducing another reform.
A Professor of Educational Administration at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike (AE-FUNAI), Prof. Chinedu Nwankwo, said the 6-3-3-4 system was originally designed to equip students with vocational and technical skills capable of promoting self-reliance and entrepreneurship.
According to him, successive governments failed to provide the infrastructure, equipment and qualified teachers needed to achieve the objectives of the policy.
He stressed that scrapping the system without addressing these shortcomings would only repeat past mistakes.
Also speaking, the Director of Academic Planning in the Ebonyi State Ministry of Education, Mrs. Grace Onwe, warned that frequent changes in education policies disrupt long-term planning and weaken educational development.
She called on the Federal Government to prioritise adequate funding, continuous teacher training and effective monitoring of existing programmes rather than replacing them.
Similarly, the Director of Schools in the Ebonyi State Ministry of Education, Mr. Sunday Ogbu, noted that the vocational component of the 6-3-3-4 system was never fully implemented due to the absence of functional workshops, laboratories and technical instructors in many schools.
He argued that if those facilities had been provided from the outset, many school leavers would have acquired practical skills capable of reducing unemployment and dependence on white-collar jobs.
A Professor of Curriculum Studies at Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Prof. Ngozi Enyi, also advocated policy consistency, noting that countries with successful education systems achieved lasting results by sustaining well-designed policies over time.
She dismissed claims that the 6-3-3-4 system is responsible for the growing number of out-of-school children, insisting that the challenge is rooted in broader institutional and socio-economic issues.
Representing the students’ perspective, an official of the Students’ Union Government of EBSU, Emmanuel Eze, urged the Federal Government to consult students, teachers and education experts before taking any final decision on the proposed reform.
He said students are more concerned about improved learning facilities, modern technology, functional laboratories and quality teaching than changes in educational structures.
The stakeholders unanimously called on the Federal Government to retain the 6-3-3-4 system, strengthen its implementation and invest more in technical and vocational education to equip young Nigerians with practical skills needed for national development.
Their reactions come amid growing nationwide debate over the Federal Government’s proposal to replace the 6-3-3-4 education structure, with many education experts insisting that effective implementation, not policy replacement is the key to improving learning outcomes.
