Contrary to the generally-accepted belief that the quality of education in Nigeria has dropped to an all time low, the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO, Professor Cyril Chigozie Asiabaka, has said that there is no difference between the quality of education obtained in the country now and in the 1960s.
Fielding questions from journalists yesterday in Owerri after the 54th independent anniversary celebration, Asiabaka insisted that education in Nigeria had not lost its quality.
“It is still the same with the early ages of the 1960s. The issue you have at stake is that people are comparing apples with oranges. In those days, many people were 25 years when they were in primary schools. May be they were behaving like adults. But the world is a global village now. People are knowing more things.
“The important thing is for us to see, are we comparing the falling standard of education with who? Every country must have a path to its own development. As we are now, you can’t say the quality of education is going down. The challenges facing us today are not the same challenges that faced us 20 years ago. Nigeria is moving. Education standard is moving in the direction of the world as the world moves. So, we can’t compare what happened in 1960s with what is happening today in Nigeria. So, in my own thinking, what people are thinking is nostalgia—in those days, when we were there, I used to be”, he said.
The FUTO VC stated however that the country had not reached where it supposed to be in the area of education, saying this was the reason the nation’s government was investing hugely in the education sector.
“There is always room for improvement. Educationists in Nigeria and the universities are doing their best to improve the quality of education in the country.
“Because Nigeria has the potential to be a great country, that’s why the founding fathers founded universities like FUTO where they want us to help them in technological advancement that will improve economic development of the country. In that direction, FUTO is taking the lead as the Premier University of Technology in the country, turning out graduates that had impacted positively in the technological and economical development of the country”.
Asiabaka urged the federal government to challenge the university and others like it to perform their duties.
In his words: “What we are challenging government is to start what other governments do—challenge the university. A technological university is there to solve technological problems of the country. It needs funding. So what the government should do is to challenge us for us to do our duty. That’s why we do research. So, FUTO is there as part of the transformation agenda of the country. That is hope for this country to move to become a developed country among the comity of nations”.
