 |
| Dr. Oby Ezekwesili |
A former Minister of
Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has identified poor quality of teachers as one
of the factors contributing to the continued decadence and loss of confidence
in the Nigerian public schools.
The
Punch report continues:
According
to Ezekwesili, qualified and competent teachers are the bedrock of quality
education in any society.
The
former minister, however, lamented the Nigerian situation, where corruption had
engendered a steady and continuous decadence in the public school education
system.
Ezekwesili
was the guest speaker at the 12th Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture held in Lagos
on Friday by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch.
She
spoke on the theme “The Collapse of Public Education and the Past, Present and
Future Prospects of the Nigerian State.”
She
emphasized that “no matter the structure or the building, no matter the amount
of textbooks you put in the schools, no matter the information technology gadgets,
no matter the funding you provided, if the quality of the teacher is poor,”
every other investment in public school would be a waste.
Ezekwesili
went to tie the nation’s economic prospect to its ability to not only fund
education but to ensure that such funds were appropriately applied.
She
said, “Our acceleration in economic growth depends on how many people are
educated. Funding education is different from investing in education. An
average Nigerian child has everything the society needs to make them compete
with the rest of the world.”
She
advocated better commitment on the part of the government to reviving the
public school.
“The
public education system is a principle of right to ensure total inclusion and
equity. There is no society that can make progress without anchoring it on
education. We must have series of action oriented dialogue to improve our
education system,” she said.
In
his own submission, popular poet, Odia Ofeimun, who was also a guest speaker at
the event, said education was at the root of civilization and an investment in
tomorrow.
He
called on the government to do invest more for the education sector, saying
that “any government that fails to give education to its people will always
have xenophobia, tribalism and racism.”
“We
need politicians who are not afraid to die for what they believe,” Ofeimun
said.
Speaking
on the state of the nation, the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja
Branch, Mr. Yinka Farounbi, said if the iconic human rights lawyer “Gani
were to be alive, he wouldn’t have been surprised with all revelations on
corruption now.”
“He knew the high level of
corruption in government when he was alive and he fought against it through
court cases. This annual lecture is done to commemorate the achievements of the
late Chief Gani Fawehinmi who was a renowned anti-corruption crusader.
Fawehinmi used his position to fight corruption instead of amassing immense wealth
for himself,” Farounbi recalled.
No comments:
Post a Comment