Gani Adams charges FG, states, others to accord high priority to education

ACCORD National Coordinator, Oodu’a People’s Congress (OPC), Otunba Gani Adams, on Friday in Lagos charged the Federal and state governments as well as Nigerians to continue to accord high priority to education in the country in order to achieve immediate national goals, pointing out that the laws, regulations, practices and curricular shaping the education should be based on the best Nigerian culture and tradition.

This was as Professor Sophie Oluwole and Dr (Mrs) Kemi Ojemoghaat, who all spoke at the 2017 World Literacy Day with the theme: “Literacy in a Digital World,” called on government to offer genuine leadership and vision for the future of digital skills and digital economy in the country with Oluwole reminding that computer was not new to Africa as depicted by the Ifa divinity, which common to the Yoruba race.

Speaking at the event, organised by him under Gani Adams Foundation, where school children drawn from both Lagos and Ogun states went away with various educational materials worth millions of naira, the OPC leader also urged the governments in the country to pursue adult education vigorously.

Adams, who is also founder of Oodua Progressive Union (OPU), said this was so because adult literacy and adult education were necessary to ensure an enlightened government and citizenry.

“Government and the people should continue to accord high priority to education in order to achieve the national goals quickly. The laws, regulations, practices and curricular should be based on the best Nigerian culture and traditions.

“Moreover, adult literacy and adult education are necessary to ensure an enlightened government and citizenry,” he said.

Otunba Adams, who lamented the high cost of education in private schools even at kindergarten level occasioning its thriving all over the country with government doing nothing about their escalation, further charged that the machinery of the educational system should be checked periodically.

To this end, he said there should be interactive sessions between teachers, parents, guardians, past students and the communities with a view to having a deeper understanding and appreciation of one another.

“The success of the system is the achievement of freedom from ignorance, equal opportunity through access to education and those tangible assets of education which promote the quality of man and society,” Adams said.

Speaking further, the OPC leader decried some of the recent pronouncements and policy on education churned out by the Federal Government especially the issue of cut-off marks for admission into universities, saying such had clearly shown that political power was being wielded to destroy the country’s organized centres for growth and spread of knowledge.

“If it is taken that our future lies in the hands of our youths, then their hands must be well trained so that they can handle our future with diligence, care and responsibility,” Adams said.

Speaking, the guest lecturer, Dr Ojemoghaat, while identifying the challenges of digital literacy in Nigeria to affordability, the ICT curriculum, language barrier, among others, said schools should continue to keep pace with business needs to ensure digital literacy.

She also charged schools to partner with employers to raise and discuss their priorities for ensuring the computing curriculum and its teaching stay up to date, and to help ensure that other school subject qualifications provide a foundation for a broader range of digital careers.