The constraints of education stakeholder's engagement in policy decision making in Nigeria

• Main Authors: Yaro, Ibrahim, Arshad, Rozita, Salleh, Dani
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: LB Theory and practice of education
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/13137/1/62.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/13137/; http://www.uumicg2014.com/

The relevance of education to the existence and survival of nations cannot be over stressed as no nation can progress without its citizens being educated.However, to reap the benefits of education, stakeholders should be engaged in all education related matters, policy decisions inclusive. Education stakeholders comprise of all those interested in the welfare, success and progress of a school and its students including educators, parents, community members, elected officials, state representatives and non governmental organizations etc.Engaging the stakeholders is indeed a great mechanism for the realization of the objectives of education as well achieving its quality, despite this there are some constraints to their engagement in the Nigerian context. In the first instance, even though the National Policy of Education provides and guarantees stakeholder’s participation with a view to eliminating overlaps achieve and sustain synergy, the government did almost everything itself without fully incorporating those with a stake. Added to this is the issue of unnecessary politicization of the education policies by governments through frequent revising of the policies as well as communication gap pertaining education issues between government, stakeholders and the masses. In situations where they are involved, for example the educators and parents through what in Nigeria is called Parent Teacher Association, the constraints encountered include delay in decision making, increase expenses and lack of consensus.This research uses literature and document review to identify the extent of stakeholder’s engagement in policy decision making as well as the constraints of accomplishing the goal of their engagement.