Future of education lies in our hands —Don

From left, guest speaker, Professor Ngozi Osarenren; Mrs. Yemisi Subair; Mr. Babatunde Kolade, and Mrs. Folashade Adefisayo, at an education summit, organised by Men of Issachar, at Good News Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos State, on Saturday. Photo; Sylvester Okoruwa.

The future of education was on Saturday at the forefront of discourse again, as education stakeholders gathered to discuss how to revive education in the country.

The event was organised by the Good News Baptist Church, Surulere, Lagos State.

Ngozi Osarenren, a Professor of Guardian and Counseling at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in her keynote address, said it is the responsibility of every Nigerian to save the future of education.

According Osarenren, the future of education in Nigeria “is the duty of every Nigerian. Everybody claims to be experts ineducation and many of them don’t even know about government’s policy on education. The tertiary institution is in a bad state because the basic educationhas failed us. If you don’t get the basic right, the tertiary will fail as well” she said.

“There is dishonesty in the educationsystem of this country. You can imagine a situation whereby Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU),was on strike for some weeks and despite the fact that the strike had been called off, many people have not resumed for academic exercise. That is the dishonesty I am talking about. There is a big problem in our hands and we have to tackle it frontally. How many parents bother to check on their children in school? How many of them ask questions? We should learn to bond with our children. The future of our education is in our hands.

“People have killed the education system for their benefits and parents keep saying there is nothing God cannot do. We should always strive for what we all can do. We can’t talk about having world class universities in Nigeria without doing something about the primary educationsystem.

“There are parents who engage in fraudulent practices, as some of them even buy results for their children. The children will grow up to follow the same crooked way”.

“We have parents buying smart phones worth of N200,000 for children under 20 years old. We are talking about honesty. ASUU went on strike in 2009 and the same reason they still went on strike in 2017.’’

She added: “The quality of education remains what it is because we don’t have quality people in our education system. The future ofeducation is in a serious problem because of our insistence in quota system. Quota system has really affected our education system.”

“School is not about structure, but about the learning quality. We have many children that cannot read. I am of the opinion that if government says they want to educate children, they should do their job and not be expecting people’s input. I am of the school of thought that government should be held accountable and responsible for what it says,” she said.