To arrest the decay in the nation’s education sector, Vice Chancellor of the First Technical University (Tech-U), Ibadan, Ayobami Salami has called on stakeholders in the education industry to unite for the transformation of the sector.
He made this call recently as the Guest Lecturer at the grand finale of the 2019 United Nations International Youths Week organised by the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Oyo State Chapter.
“Educational transformation is very dear to me; having been active in providing tertiary education for over thirty years. I have also traversed our educational system as a student, a teacher and as an administrator at various levels. As an ardent stakeholder, I can state unequivocally that all hands are required on deck to harness our vast human and capital resources towards achieving educational transformation at local, regional and national levels”, Salami said.
Salami who represented by Adesola Ajayi, deputy vice-chancellor of the Institution, underscored the urgent need to revamp the subsisting model of education in the country characterised by monumental infrastructural deficit, inadequate funding, irrelevant curricular, inadequate staffing, warped orientation of learners, dismal student performance, and the resultant dysfunctional system among other sectoral deficiencies.
He said, “The consequences of poor education in Nigeria over the years is already evident in extremely high unemployment of educated youths, gross dependence on foreign technology, and lack of technical expertise for even simple tasks”.
“To fully explore the potentials of our intelligent youth populace, all stakeholders in the educational sector must agree on curriculum and delivery strategies that would elicit innovation, cooperation and ingenuity in educational spaces that guarantee practicality. We require the Government at various levels to provide infrastructure and funding commensurate to the urgency and extent of the transformation we need in the educational sector. The government must actualize the tenets of its recently declared State of Emergency in the sector. Our brand of education must deliver development and social progress all over the country in alignment to the nation’s developmental priorities”.
Salami, a professor who was also honoured with an Award of Excellence in Education for his contribution to the development of education in the country by the NYCN through its Chapter leader, Adebola Agbeja, called for an all-inclusive strategy that would place education in the country on the right pedestal.
“We can no longer ignore the unfortunate statistics showing that Nigeria currently houses over 10 million out-of-school children. Activities of the Universal Basic Education Commission at the national level must be complemented by prompt release of counterpart funds by States”, he said.
REMI FEYISIPO, Ibadan
