Education:: Lack Of Fund Bane of Edu In Nig—Shekarau
Olusegun HOSEA. 23rd March, 2024.
The former education Minister, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ibrahim Shekarau has said lack of funding is one of the bane of Education in Nigeria. Disclosing this in an interview with Pressmen in Akure at a book launch titled: The psychology of Growing old:: A personal Experience for both old and Young. Authored by Chief Basorun Seinde Arogbofa -OFR. Arogbofa ,who is one of the founding Father of Ondo State and a life patron of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Ondo State Chapter . A prolific writer of which his works have helped many old and Young writers in shaping their life style and mode of writing.
Malam, Shekarau, who was a two time governor of Kano State, said government has not been funding Education well the way it supposed to be and this was the reasons why the system is not meeting the current standard in this jet age. According to him, most government are focusing on the provision of the infrastructural development more , while neglecting the development of the education in the country. He said without good funding of the system to a standard level , all those infrastructural building and construction can not work as no country could develop without having good educational standard.
In another development, Shekarau also identified over population to be another challenge facing the progress of education in Nigeria. He said most of the classroom are having up-to 150-200 in a classroom as against 40 learners recommended by the government. He explained that in such a situation, there was no way a Teacher could give assignment and mark as the classroom population was too large for them to cope with, thereby leading to poor performance of the learners which inturn bring about low productivity in the systems.
Similarly, the former Minister also emphasized on the lack of welfare and motivation of the teachers to perform optimally . According to him, most Teachers are not well remunerated . He said the condition of the service was tool poor for them to carry out their national duties as government doesn’t provided a good welfare package that would motivate them to optimal higher performance in the system.
Speaking further, Ibrahim Shekarau said lack of educational tools for teachers to work with was not there.He explained that most Teachers do not have the good instructional tools to perform their duties and this was bringing low productivity in the educational system in the country. He implored the government to always brace up and rise up to their responsibilities in this regards so that we could have a better Education for our current children and the unborn generations.
On The President TINUBU Restructuring reform on state police , the former Education Minister has this to say. ” I have been an advocate of what is called community police which is different from the state police. Community policing mean community watch and all you need to do is for government to promogate a law that would back up this local vigilante for them to work effectively while the local government would take care of them” He said their mode of selection should come from the elderly one living in such a community as they know their people very well and the terrains are also familiar with them .
He didn’t subscribe to the issue of state police proposed by the government. He was of the opinion that government could easily recruit their thugs into the State policing thereby end up using them to harass the people in the society and that if State policing is allowed to stay , the politicians would hijacked it as they would be the one that would be nominating their candidate to filled the system. He made reference to the Hisbah guard in Kano which was left in the hands of the community people to recruit and control. He said most of the duties of this guide was to complement the work of the national security Agencies in Nigeria and that they have been do it effectively. He said what we need in Nigeria now is community watch not state police.
