From: Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Minister of State for Niger Delta Affiars, Prof. Claudius Daramola, has
lamented the poor state of education in the country, even as he noted
that the nation’s education is already dead.
The minister spoke, in Akure, on Thursday, at an Education Summit organised by the Ondo
State government.
Prof. Daramola said that for the nation’s education to
rise again, all stakeholders in the education sector must rise to the challenges confronting the education sector in the country.
Daramola, a professor of Sociology, also decried the poor
performances of graduates produced by the nation’s institutions,
saying that the current situation in the education sector calls for an
urgent attention.
He said the values of education are gradually being eroded away, just
as he stressed the need for teachers to revamp the lost glory of
education in all the levels of education in the country.
Also Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State expressed worry on what
he described as the sorry state of education in the country and the
state in particular; assuring that his government will do all that is
needed to revamp the education sector
The governor said: “Your presence at this summit is enough indication
of patriotism. Your zeal depicts the seriousness which you attach to
this fundamental problem militating against development.
“Your realistic inputs will be of tremendous assistance to our
administration keenly desirous of charting a new course with regard to
its avowed determination to introduce a purposeful and functional
system of training,” he added.
While stressing that functional educational system should be able to
address specific areas of challenges faced by the society, Akeredolu
charged the stakeholders in the education sector to consider the
whole of gamut of the conundrum which he said incapacitated the youths
rather than empowering them.
He said “We must be frank in our deliberations to proffer workable
solutions to the parasitic system which exacts so much from the
society with progressively vanishing hope of recompense.
“It is heart-corroding to note that our state, which was the envy of
all other states in the field of education, now parades vestigial
relics of that glorious past. Virtually all public schools are in a
sorry state. No serious society allows such pervasive decadence in its
system and expects progress.
“The fact that the government is seen as the main provider of
employment for the citizens confirms the state of monumental failure
of the current system. The practices associated with the sector cannot
lead to real development,” he added.