Education is the process of teaching and learning, usually at school, college or university; and it is known to be the engine room of every nation's socio-economic and political development. As a result, any nation that jokes with the issue of education is definitely heading towards the path of self-destruction.

All over the world, education is regarded as a viable tool for development. Recently, the National Union of Teachers (NUT), embarked on a five-week industrial action, because of what it the implementation of the the Teachers Salary Structure (TSS)and because the government refused to honour its words on the TSS, the union had no alternative but to embark on a strike, after serving a warning notice to the Federal Government. For the strike action to have lasted five weeks, it goes a long way to show that the education sector has no significance to the government of the day.

This made the Lagos State House of Assembly decide on holding a summit that would revitalise the sector. At one of its recent sittings, a preliminary committee on education summit was set up with a mandate to carry out an initial finding on the proposed education summit by the House.

The terms of reference of this committee were to identify the immediate and remote factors that contributed to the fall in the standard of education in the state; to examine the state of education sector with a view to determining the extent to which it has delivered the designed objectives; to identify the logistics and modalities for the summit and to make recommendations which in the opinion of the committee are relevant to the issue under review.

The committee came out with its report on Tuesday July 29, 2008, plenary session. Chairman of the committee, Taiwo Kolawole while presenting the report noted that as individuals, nature has endowed us with life, which is considered sacred. According to him, too many children, especially Lagosians grow up without realising this reality, because they are denied the basic rights, even a formal education like primary school.

He Said: "Some children are now nuisance; they harass, intimidate and harm motorists and pedestrians. While some of them sell wares on the expressways, a few others are now scavengers moving from one public dust bin to another collecting waste material."

He added: "It is a known fact that all over the world, the genuine end to acute hunger, poverty as well as promoting peace and harmony, requires that children in every nation are well empowered to make positive choice in life. While Nigeria moves closer to year 2015, the deadline for attaining Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it becomes pertinent for Lagosians to have access to basic education in a conducive environment," said Kolawole.

He explained that it is an open-secret that while majority of developing countries have already built sufficient schools to educate children of primary school age, only a quarter of these countries retain all children through primary education. He said it is now a tradition that many parents in Lagos would rather enroll their children of primary school age in private schools instead of government-owned. The reason for this, according to him, is that public schools have become nightmare, a symbol of avoidable decadence of what they used to be in the past.

"The same public schools that churned out great Nigerians who have made their marks worldwide are now in a state of despair. But this ugly trend is national phenomenon. It is the same story that dots the educational sector of other states in Nigeria," he added.

These were discovered by the committee to be the challenges confronting the educational sector; erosion of attitudinal values, examination malpractices, globalisation, school management, infrastructure, the need to strengthen technical and functional education and the need for impact assessment.

The committee also highlighted the following to be the problems confronting the sector, which include lack of motivation of teaching and non-teaching staff, dwindling funds for schools, alarming staff/student ratio, arbitrariness in admission and over-crowding in classrooms, use of school age children as child labour, lack of job opportunities for graduates, patronage and favouritism in teachers' posting and transfer, unethical conduct of parents and teachers in both internal and external examinations and poor curriculum design.

To make the state education sector an exception, the committee has identified different stakeholders to partake in the summit. The stakeholders include all agencies/ministries of government connected with education sector in Lagos State, administrators of education at all levels, key proprietors of education in the private sector, all parents/teachers associations, students' associations, trade unions and staff associations in the education sector, donor and funding agencies in the sector, private sector involved in funding education, non governmental organisations (NGOs), the media, philanthropists and seasoned educationists.

Speaking on how funds would be generated for the summit, the chairman explained that partnership will be sought from organisations involved in child-related products; private sector including oil and gas companies, financial institutions, food and beverages; NGOs; book publishers; organisations interested in the education summit as part of their corporate social responsibilities (CSR). According to him, the assistance could be in cash or kind, summit materials, payment for venue, accommodation bills and so on. He said such organisation in return would be acknowledged in all the advertisements of the event.

"The summit will be a two-day event, fully residential for the secretariat members and key resource persons, in order to allow for effective coordination of the summit without distraction," the committee chairman added.

However, Speaker of the House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, recently inaugurated an implementation committee, which would ensure that the summit's aim is achieved.

During the inauguration ceremony of the seven-man implementation committee, Ikuforiji said education, which is the bedrock of civilization, has fallen to the level that calls for urgent and drastic attention to save the system from total collapse.

He then charged the committee members to be dedicated, committed and swing into action and come up with likely views, suggestions and ideas that would bring education back to the old glory.

In his response, chairman of the implementation committee, Taiwo Kolawole, expressed optimism that the committee would perform its assignment diligently.

Other members of the implementation committee are Wahab Alawiye-King, Chairman House Committee on Education; Sanai Agunbiade, Chairman House Committee on Commerce and industry; Rotimi Abiru, Chairman House Committee on Waterfront and Infrastructure; Lola Akande, Deputy Chief Whip of the House while Sola Ogayemi, Deputy Clerk of the House is the Secretary of the committee.