ISSUE NUMBER TWO:
FREE AND QUALITATIVE PUBLIC EDUCATION UP TO THE TERTIARY LEVEL FOR QUALIFYING
STUDENTS
As one whose father endured great hardship to give
himself an education culminating in his being a 1973 graduate of History of the
University of Ibadan and being a beneficiary of his immense sacrifice to give
me the best education available at the time, I know the value of a qualitative
education.
All my formal education was in public schools:
Government School, Uromi, Edo State; St. Patrick’s Primary School, Yaba, Lagos;
King’s College, Lagos; and the University of Benin, Benin City. The tragedy is
that, today, I would not like my children to attend the same great schools I
attended because they would not get the same quality of education I received in
my days.
Education is the foundation for a great future.
Education is empowerment to succeed in an ever-increasingly challenging world.
Education should not be a privilege. Education is a basic right. I believe that
very Nigerian child should be educated by the Nigerian state at the expense of
the state up to the tertiary level for those students who meet the admission
criteria for our universities and polytechnics.
As a matter of priority, I will sponsor a bill in the
Senate for the reform of our educational system to ensure that Nigerian
children are given free and qualitative education up to the university/polytechnic
level and that Nigerian teachers are both well trained and well paid for the
great task they are burdened with: the education of our posterity.
For the avoidance of doubt, I want to make clear that the
new education policy means that SCHOOL FEES WOULD BE ABOLISHED AND MADE ILLEGAL
FOR NIGERIANS in all public schools. In addition, one free meal shall be
provided during school hours to all children of public primary and secondary schools
across the country while the students in the tertiary institutions would be
paid bursary by the Federal Government equivalent to the 50% of the official national
minimum wage. I will initiate an
amendment of the Nigerian Constitution to make funding for education a
first-line charge on the nation’s consolidated accounts and to ensure that it represents
at least 10% of the Budget of the Federal Government.
I am convinced that Nigeria has the financial resources
to meet the additional costs this new education policy would entail. The
problem is not the dearth of funds; the problem is the LACK OF POLITICAL WILL TO
MAKE QUALITY EDUCATION FREELY AVAILABLE TO ALL NIGERIANS, THE HYDRA-HEADED MONSTER OF CORRUPTION
and GROSS SYSTEMIC INEFFICIENCIES which create leakages such that the billions
of Naira voted annually for education by all levels of government never actually
get used for the purpose budgeted.
Nigeria should be subsidising the education of its youths rather than subsidising the importation of fuel which it should really be exporting.
Nigeria should be subsidising the education of its youths rather than subsidising the importation of fuel which it should really be exporting.
We can and we must secure the future of our youths by guaranteeing them first class education that would make them world-beaters!
