Surprise: Nigeria’s education sector needs revolution -Aliyu

Posted by admin Education, General Politics, Headlines, Niger, State News Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Niger State governor, Dr Mua’zu Babangida Aliyu, took a critical look at the nation’s education sector on Tuesday and concluded that the entire sector needs a total revolution.

Aliyu, who played host to the one-week executive council meeting of the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) in Minna, the state capital, decried the poor performance of students in public examinations and the deplorable conditions of most educational infrastructure in the country.

The situation, he noted, was worsened by the fact that only one Nigerian tertiary institution was placed 44th on the scale of excellent universities in Africa, whereas South Africa dominated the first to nineth position, while Egypt was placed 10th.

Aliyu said it was totally unacceptable for the situation to continue, while he asked that experts and stakeholders should collaborate to arrest the drift in the sector.

According to the governor, one of the ways to revamp the education sector was to properly integrate the almajiri system into the conventional educational sector, while, at the same time, placing a nationwide ban on begging syndrome, which had made many children not to focus on education.

“We must produce educated people that will easily fit into the labour market,” he said.

The governor said the country should accord adequate recognition to teachers, while he charged principals of secondary schools not to be afraid to discharge their responsibilities.

The national president of ANCOPSS, Chief Ade-niyi Falade, in an address, blamed the falling standard of education in the country on what he termed “inevitable consequence of systematic neglect and inadequate investment by all the critical stakeholders.”

-Tribunewp_posts