GIFT EMMANUEL, Abuja
Chairman of Committee of Deans of Faculties of Education in Nigerian Universities, Professor Solomon Olorundare, has said that education in Nigeria is in a state of deep crisis, urging concrete steps to salvage the situation.
Olorundare who attributed this crisis to poorly and uncommitted implementation of educational policies by the Federal Government, pointed out that the problems bedevilling education sector in Nigeria were not as a result of lack adequate policies.
Prof. Olorundare, who is also the Dean Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, spoke in Abuja on Thursday at the presentation and launch of Memoirs of Dr. Steve Nwokeocha, Director of Operation Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria.
The Memoirs in five books are: Nigeria: Managing Teacher Education and Practice in Era of Transformation; Issues of Education in Nigeria: A Discourse; Research Methods in Education for a Global Audience; Sociology Education for Universities and Colleges of Education; and Organisational and Human Resource Management Applied to Tertiary Educational Institutions in Nigeria.
He stressed that the Federal Government could not profess real transformation in Nigeria, without putting education first, adding that education is the foundation of a thriving and innovative nation.
He spoke against the backdrop of the ongoing strikes by the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), the protracted strike by the Academic Staff Union Universities and the general decline in the quality of education, adding that priority attention must be given to teacher education and motivation in the country.
President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Alhaji Abdulwaheed Omar, who chaired the occasion, said any genuine efforts to transform Nigeria must commence from education sector, saying the country needed to get it right from teachers who are responsible for human capital development and character moulding.
The Book Reviewer, Prof. Agaptus Orji, Director, Institute of Education, University of Abuja, called for more and sustained funding to the education, noting that there were still high levels of infrastructure decay at all levels of education in Nigeria.
According to him, Nigeria is still far from allocation of 26 per cent of a national budget to education as recommended by United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
He commended the author of the books, Dr. Nwokeocha, for his works and making leading contribution to teacher-development in Nigeria and Africa.
