Don urges FG to fund education sector, revitalise Unity Colleges

A professor of biochemistry at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Folashade Olajuyigbe, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to adequately fund the education sector, describing as worrisome the poor state of education in Nigeria.

Olajuyigbe, an alumus of the Federal Government College, Idoani in Ondo State, also called on the Federal Government to increase funding for unity colleges across the country.

Nigeria currently has 110 unity schools spread across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.

Olajuyigbe, who spoke while addressing newsmen during an award ceremony organised by the Federal Government College Idoani Alumni Association in Abuja, said the Unity Colleges should be revitalised to deliver quality education to the citizenry.

She noted that members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are on strike due to the same funding and revitalisation of the public universities issues.

Olajuyigbe said: “We ASUU members are on strike because of issues bordering on revitalisation and others.

“Meanwhile, the same goes for the Unity Colleges. Some years back, teachers in Unity Colleges went on strike for the same reason, but at the end of the day, they had to resume work with their demands not being met.   This has also led to people withdrawing their children from the unity schools to private ones. However, these schools can stil be revitalised depending on how well we value education as a nation.

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“We need to delibrately  devote a part of the budget to the revitalisation of our schools. We must pump more funds into the education sector. If not, the sector will continue to get worse. “Education is the bedrock of other sectors. The health sector for instance is important, but the education sector is much more important,” she said.

Also speaking at the event, the president of the Abuja chapter of the alumni association, Brigadier-General Dele Arogundade ,highlighted some of the interventions of the alumni body.

He said: “Unity schools were founded on the right principles and these principles are still in view. We need people to understand that unity schools can be great again.

“We are doing everything possible to ensure that the standard is maintained by pooling our resources. For instance, have we supplied the school with computers, just as one of our late set mates organised an endowment fund through which the best female student in JSS1 was awarded a N100,000 scholarship.

“We are trying to do more in the aspect of welfare and sponsorship for indigent students who cannot afford the school fees.”

According to the chairman of the planning committee of the event, Ezekiel Ipinlaiye,  Professor Olajuyigbe and two other members of the association were rewarded for their good reputation and exemplary commitment to the association and Nigeria as a nation.