NEWS
Nigeria@62: Stakeholders applaud gains in education sector, seek increased investment
As Nigeria mark 62nd Independence Anniversary, some stakeholders has advocated increased investment in education infrastructure to rejig the sector towards delivery quality education in the country.The stakeholders including educationists, activists and public officials spoke in Bauchi, Dutse and Gombe while appraising the performance in the sector since independence.
They said that Nigeria had made appreciable progress in providing school infrastructure, capacity building and manpower development in the past 62 years.
Prof. Salisu Rakum, former Dean Faculty of Education, Federal University Kashere (FUK), said Nigeria recorded significant successes in school infrastructure development, improved enrollment, retention and completion in schools.
He said the country could boast of over 170 universities as against six in the 1960, while the number of secondary and primary schools increased from 311 and 1,000 to over 27,000 and 116,925, respectively.
“At independence, the enrollment ratio in primary schools was less than 30 per cent as against current 60 per cent.
“There is great improvement in the education sector compared to the situation in pre-independence era.
“Other statistics relate to the question of quality education, however, there is great improvement in that aspect too,” he said.
The don noted that students of private schools had been achieving academic excellence in view of quality services in the system.
He said the problem of poor quality education is more prevalent in public schools, hence the need for increased investment to reinvigorate the sector.
“Most of the public schools with high standards were previously owned by private sector like missionaries.
“The culture of good teaching still lingered in such schools, eventhough they are lacking in some areas but the output continued to be good,” he said.
Rakum said that poor performance in public schools could be attributed to lack of good foundation and enabling environment which negatively affected teaching and learning processes.
Similarly, Dr Hassan Langa, former Provost, College of Education, Billiri, Gombe State, said the literacy rate at independence was low compared to the number of educated and professionals trained in the country since independence.
He said that Nigeria’s educational institutions have the capacity to produce the manpower and human resource necessary to manage its affairs as against pre-independence era when the country relied on expatriates.
He stressed the need for proactive measures to address nagging problems militating against sustainable development in the sector.
In the same vein, Alhaji Garba Hassan, a teacher in Bauchi, urged governments at all levels to ensure 26 per cent budgetary allocation to education sector to meet up with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)’s standards.
He noted that Nigeria has made giant stride in education in view of the availability of schools from basic to tertiary levels of education.
“It is a good sign of our attitude to embrace education and a well informed educated society is a better society for all to live,” he said.
Another teacher, Mr Olubunmi Adetoye lauded President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for the implementation of the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).
He observed that the programme encouraged enrollment and retention in schools, adding that, “it made positive impact on public health, economy, agriculture and other sectors”.
NHGSFP is aimed at improving the health of pupils and academic outcomes in public primary schools.
In 2004, the Federal Government piloted the programme in 12 states, while its scope expanded to 22 states in 2016.
According to officials data, over 7.5 million pupils in 46,000 schools received 300 million meals to since inception of the programme.
Also commenting, Mr Abdullahi Yelwa, a lecturer, Department of Crime Management and Control, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic, Bauchi, decried poor quality education in the country.
He said the standard of education in the 1960s and 1970s was higher than the present situation.
The lecturer recalled that post-independence governments provided incentives that encouraged school enrollment such as free meals, transportation and scholarships.
The gesture, he said, translated to achieving high education standards and quality graduates.
He, therefore, stressed the need for increased investment in education for sustainable development in the sector.
Corroborating earlier opinion, Bashir Birnin Kudu and Maryam Ibrahim, residents of Dutse, Jigawa, said the falling standard of education was a source of concern.
They described the current education system as unproductive which called for urgent measures to improve school infrastructure, welfare of students and teachers.
“It is disheartening for students to stay away from schools for long after the COVID-19 lockdown, due to ongoing strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),” Ibrahim said.
She urged the government and the striking teachers to resolve their differences to facilitate resumption of schools to achieve academic excellence.
