Former MAPOLY rector laments poor teaching, learning system in Nigerian schools

FORMER rector, Moshood Abiola Polytechnic(MAPOLY), Abeokuta, Mr Waheed Kadiri, has called on the Federal Government to review the teaching syllabus at the higher education level in the country to change the ‘poor’ narrative of the educational sector.

Kadiri who made the appeal in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital last week, during a round table session, heralding his 70th birthday celebration said there was need to make the education curriculum flexible in order to produce more professionals in different fields.

The former president of the Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), argued that for the nation to attain quality education, there is need to unbundle the current syllabus which, according to him, is too cumbersome.

He stressed that students are mandated to take courses that are irrelevant to their fields of study, saying such must be reviewed to produce professionals rather than  half-baked graduates whom he lamented cannot solve the nation’s problems.

Kadiri also faulted the Federal Government and policy makers in the educational sector of over regulating the educational system. This, he noted, would further worsen the system.

“We need to make our curriculum so flexible and at the same time useful to our students. The curriculum must be unbundled. We really need to move with time. In terms of curriculum development, this country is very poor.

“Government has politicised education. The educational system has been over regulated; the National Universities Commission (NUC) determines everything in the university system and this won’t help in any way. Professional programmes should be regulated by professional bodies and not NUC,” he added.

According to Kadiri, another factor that is bedevilling the educational sector is lack of professionalism among lecturers in various tertiary institutions across the nation.

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