After many years of teaching at the different levels of the Nigerian education system, I have developed certain critical perceptions about educational management, teaching and learning.  My teaching and leadership experience in the education system spans over 40 years, and encompasses work in primary schools, secondary schools, technical colleges, Colleges of Education, and Universities.  During the period under consideration, I interacted closely with my students, and in the process I became intensely aware of the interdependent relationship between educational management, teaching and learning activities and outcomes.  As the years rolled by, certain trends and developments became more obvious and worrisome.
        This lecture is titled “With Effective Management, All Students Can Learn: No Excuses or Exceptions.”  To many colleagues in this auditorium, the title may look controversial.  If indeed it catches your attention and sensitizes you as to the thrust and message of this lecture, then half my job is already done.  For the avoidance of doubt, the key operative words in the title are management, students and learning.  The attachment of “Effective” to Management, and of “All” to students is for emphasis.  With Educational Administration as my field of specialization, the major focus of my research endeavours and publications has been on the impact that educational management can make on the processes and outcomes of teaching and learning.  The verdict seems to be that educational managers and political policy and decision makers occasionally become liabilities instead of facilitators of teaching and learning.  That many of our students at all levels of the education system are not learning and achieving enough is reflective of the inadequacies, exclusions, values and attitudes experienced within the system.