Ogar Monday/Chiamaka Ofodum
“The public school system in Nigeria has collapsed”. The assertion was made by Professor Hogan Ekpo while giving his opening speech at the 17th Bassey Andah Memorial lecture held at the Transcorp hotel in Calabar recently.
“The most embarrassing of it all is that it is worse in the primary level. If we are to go back to our various primary schools and see what they have become today you will have a better understanding of what I’m saying and yet that level is the foundation that is meant to be strong”, added Professor Akpan Ekpo who is the Director General, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management.
Professor Ekpo who was the Chairman of the lecture wondered why history has been removed as a subject in our secondary schools, saying it has made the country lose focus of its history and lost in its present predicament.
His words: “Education is tricky but it has to be properly couched. We have to look into our curriculum and train future leaders to know where they are coming from. There is the need to take a robust x-ray of our educational system so as to properly situate it properly in the scheme of Nigeria’s development plan.”
While delivering the lecture, the Guest Lecturer Emeritus Professor Michael Omolewa said Nigerian’s educational system was built on a very shaky foundation and therefore hardly reflects an institution that can institute the virtues of nation building.
Prof. Omolewa posited that for the current educational system to make any meaningful contribution towards nation building, the issue of quota system and inequality as regards access and the building of educational facilities must be addressed.
Also speaking at the event, Prof. Elizabeth Okeke said that for us to deal with the problem of nation building through education, there must be equal access for both sexes to education.
Bassey Andah Memorial Lecture is held every year by the Bassey Andah Foundation, BAF to steer debate on the nation’s polity.
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