Nigeria’s education system in crisis, ex-minister laments

FORMER Minister of State for Health and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, has taken a swipe at the current education system in Nigeria, lamenting that it is in a state of crisis.

He called for an urgent reform of the entire system, from the basic to secondary, vocational/technical and higher education.

Dr Pate made the comments in Abuja in his speech at the 10th anniversary of Financial Nigeria Magazine with the theme ‘Nigeria’s Sustainable Development Agenda’.

He noted that at the basic education level, Nigeria’s public education is largely dysfunctional and of poor quality, adding that in some parts of the country, literacy and numeracy rates among five to 16 year-old children are only about one-third, while more than 10 million children are out of school.

“We have become numb to accepting a form of social apartheid where children of the poor are left to a broken education system while the elite send their children to private schools or abroad,” he said.

He also lamented that the country is currently in a weak position, especially with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) timeline, noting that it could still achieve it through sincere and determined actions on the part of both the leadership and followership at various levels.

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“We should urgently reform the entire educational system. We should leave no child behind. We have had individuals who could exercise authority, but who failed in exercising leadership as stewards of our heritage and commonwealth.

“The lack of stewardship mindset is reflected in our dysfunctional politics, where politicians are scrambling to seek this office or the other without articulating a clear vision of where they will lead us or (their) developmental agenda other than getting into office.

“Our political system has consequently adopted mediocrity as its central ethos, without regard to competence or character. Instead of pursuing development, some of our political leaders appear to be consumed perpetually with the ‘next’ election.”

Earlier in his welcome address, the managing editor of the magazine, Mr. Jide Akintunde, said despite the enormous challenges encountered when it started 10 years ago, the magazine was able to surmount the hurdles.

He appreciated the subscribers for their support, urging Nigerians to set agenda for the country.