The Alumni Association of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, in Lagos on Thursday, organised a get-together to discuss developmental issues relating to their alma mater. It evaluated the progress of the entire education system, concluding that the military rule damaged the sector. SODIQ OYELEKE reports
Nigeria’s former military rulers once again received knocks for intervening in governance. That was on Thursday, at the gathering of the alumni of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Lagos State branch. The military regimes were not just blamed for the rot and corruption bedevilling the country, they were also accused of being responsible for the poor quality of education that the nation has been experiencing since the turn of the century.
The alumni association had organised a one-day conference, with the theme, ‘Positioning Nigerian university system for national development.’
They blamed the military regimes for not sustaining the educational legacy that guided the establishment of the first generation universities, including OAU and the University of Ibadan.
The present administration was also blamed for compromising the standard of education by unwittingly toeing the line that the military had established.
According to the Head of Service, Lagos State Government, Mr. Segun Ogunlewe, the incursion of the military into governance did more damage to the nation’s educational development.
He wondered why subsequent governments had neglected the education sector, saying that education needed an immediate attention from the government.
He said, “The educational system we had in the 1960s was better than the one we are having today.”
Ogunlewe, who was the special guest of honour at the ceremony, noted that the Shehu Shagari administration also did little to raise the standard of education in the country.
He lamented the drop in the current standard of tertiary education, when compared to what obtained before the military struck.
He said, “Shagari’s government started with the creation of universities without proper monitoring. This made Nigeria to have numerous universities, albeit without the requisite standard. The standard of our universitiesy today is not worth reckoning with, compared with the past standards of some institutions such as the OAU and UI.
“The educational system we had in the 1960s was better than the one we are having today. Gone were those days when government used to award effective scholarships, which placed tertiary education within the reach of people who, otherwise would have been unable to access it because of their parents’ or guardians’ poverty level.
“All these are pointers to that fact that government paid requisite attention to universities in those days. Vacation jobs were also provided deliberately by the government; but all these are no longer there in today’s university system.”
Also, political activist and lecturer at the Lagos State University, Ojo, Mr. Dele Seteolu, advocated the elimination of ethnicity and tribalism in university admission, official appointment and general administration in the Nigerian university system.
Admission, he argued, must be offered based on performance and excellence, rather than on mundane sentiments.
He claimed that educational structure under the Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo military regimes led to the de-subsidisation of educational standard in the country.
Seteolu stressed that in the 1960s, Nigerian education was reckoned with globally, such that students came from other West African countries in search of higher education in Nigeria.
He said, “We need to understand the nature of the state before we can appreciate the state of education in Nigeria”
To raise the standard of education in the country, Seteolu said, Nigerian government should recreate the state, increase budgetary allocation to education and organise a broad summit on education.
He advised university administrators to build academic links with their counterparts abroad.
He said, “We need to collaborate with universities that are doing well and emulate their educational structure. But now, I will be surprised to see foreign students in Nigerian universities, whereas some Nigerians spend so much money on their children’s education overseas.”
Seteolu also advised parents and guardians to spend more time with their children because “they are leaders of tomorrow.”
In his remark, a former lecturer from the Cape Town University, South Africa, Dr. Austin-Tam George, said universities should be concerned with the quality of their products, instead of basing their judgment on the number of students enrolled for their programmes.
He condemned the government for what he described as the “politicisation of the recruitment of teachers and lecturers.”
He added, “Most of the teachers and lecturers in our schools and tertiary institutions are not academically qualified for the position they occupy. This has an adverse effect on the standard of education in the country.”
September 30, 2012 by Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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