Education will thrive and develop if leaders shun corruption and if it is eradicated from public service.
National President, Alumni Association of the Old Boys Association, Methodist Boys’ High School (MHSIOBA), Ibadan, Lekan Abioye, stated this during a reunion and gala night themed ‘Education, Innovation and Possibilities for a Better Nation’.
Outstanding former students, teachers and principals were honoured for their selfless contributions to the school.
Abioye, who expressed joy at leading the first ever reunion of all old boys, emphasised the importance of service to humanity, accountability and strengthening relationships.
According to Abioye, the association has been able to achieve remarkable successes, including renovation of the school’s legacy building, among others.
He said projects were carried out by different sets of the old boys with the goal of making their alma mater a better place than they left it.
The ‘93 set was recognised and praised for their efforts in the development of the school and provision of better opportunities for subsequent sets.
National Association of Seadogs has celebrated International Day of Education by raising awareness on discrimination, racism, xenophobia and hate speech.
It reiterated importance of education, at the grassroots.
Spokesman, Olalekan Olubiyi, said: “The need to curb vices becomes imperative to continue to preach the message all over.”
He wrote to Ogun State government, through Commissioner for Education, to attend to schools in bad state.
Seadogs donated educational and supporting items to OLG Primary School, Apena village, Magbon, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The items were exercise books, bags, white boards, markers, knapsack, pencils and pens.
“This initiative is to help cushion effect of non-availability of educative materials among pupils and to reignite hopes for a promising tomorrow,” Olubiyi said.
The initiative, led by Executive Director Prince Gideon Olanrewaju, secured the Mastercard Foundation Prize of $5000 after a 6-month incubation program.
AREAi’s FastTrack solution, utilizing three learning approaches, garnered attention for its innovative approach to fostering literacy and numeracy skills.
Olanrewaju stated that the funds would be invested in professional development and expanding program coverage to benefit 200 more individuals.
FastTrack, a technology-enabled skills development program, focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy for out-of-school refugee children.
Currently reaching over 4000 children, the program’s success lies in its tailored teaching approach, proving cost-effective in improving basic skills.
As a UNLEASH Plus Innovation Lab winner, AREAi received a $5000 grant, affirming FastTrack’s global recognition.
The organization plans to expand into seven additional states in Nigeria and three neighboring countries within the next 12 months.
The Executive Director, Olanrewaju, emphasized the transformative potential of their impact beyond borders, highlighting their commitment to addressing educational gaps in Africa. UNLEASH Plus, a 6-month incubation program, supports early-stage social entrepreneurs with promising ideas and teams, providing essential resources for their solutions.
Attorney-General of the Federation AGF and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi and his counterpart in the Education Ministry, Prof. Tahir Mamman have expressed discomfort over the prevalence of cases of gender-based violence in nation’s schools.
Fagbemi and Mamman, who blamed the development partly on the absence of strict and swift prosecution, said there urgent need for astakeholders to collaborate on ways to address the challenge.
Both ministers spoke in Abuja at the launch of Standard Operating Procedure for the Prosecution of Perpetrators of School- Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV) cases in Nigeria, produced by both ministries, with funding from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Fagbemi said the launch of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) represents a significant milestone in addressing SRGBV effectively.
He added: “By providing clear guidelines and protocols for the prosecution of perpetrators, we aim to streamline the legal process, enhance coordination among relevant stakeholders, and ultimately deliver justice for victims.
“The SOP is to ensure a proper response to this menace particularly accountability of perpetrators through successful prosecutions with a multi-sectorial response to guide Schools in handling cases.
“The issue of SRGBV is one that strikes at the very core of our collective humanity.
“Victims of SRGBV are often left without any form of justice against their abusers as violence of this nature is still largely shrouded in a culture of silence and victim blaming.”
Mamman noted that SRGBV in all forms constitute a major concern in school attendance and retention, particularly at the lower level of schools in the country.
The Education Minister was optimistic that the SOP will go a long way in stopping occurrences and provide strict and swift way to prosecute offenders.
He assured the citizens of his ministry’s support for the application of the SOP by engaging in sensitisation.
“People should know that there is a process, a speedy mechanism for speedy is available,” he said, adding that the ministry plans to distribute the SOP to all schools.
This measure, he added, will enable people to be aware that there a measure in place to deal with perpetrators of “these unholy and despicable practices”.
In its effort to contribute to strengthening the work of the Federal Government to boost economic output, the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) has formed an alliance with the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), Lagos State chapter.
The collaboration was concluded at a conference organised by the top executives of NAPPS, Lagos branch, led by the President, Dr. Alaka-Yusuf Lukman, at the state secretariat of the association in Okota, Lagos. Alaka-Yusuf said NAPPS was geared towards working with Nigerian industrialists, with the hope of providing essential education to help them achieve excellence in the sectors of the economy.
The Vice-President of the National Association of Chambers of Commerce Industries Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Chief Kola Akosile, said the roles of the organised private sector were crucial in ensuring that a strong platform was available for small scale enterprises to succeed in their operations. He added that combining the resources of the industrialists would in the long run, help the country to achieve better economic output and accelerated growth.
Delivering his keynote lecture, the Director General of NASSI, Ifeanyi Oputa, an engineer; said the alliance with NAPPS Lagos State chapter was the panacea for promoting and enhancing the operations of industrialists in Nigeria.
Sir: The theme of the 2024 International Day of Education, Learning for Lasting Peace, resonated with the entire world. While the nature of attacks may be peculiar, no country’s education sector has been spared an attack on education in the last decade, either as a result of the pandemic, gun violence, insurgency, health epidemics, natural hazards, climate change, or civil unrest. The day, which has been observed every January 24 since 2019, acknowledges the role of education in bringing global peace and sustainable development.
In Nigeria, insecurity, conflict, and violence continue to disrupt the peace and in so doing, the learning of children. Further, militarized efforts to neutralize conflict and maintain “peace,” such as enforcing curfews, installing checkpoints, and the closure of schools to “protect” education, are temporary solutions that have proven ineffective in the long run. It is time to adopt a different approach to fostering lasting peace in society through quality education.
The common proverb “Children are sponges” refers to children’s propensity to mimic the behaviours they see in the world around them. It is imperative, therefore, to teach children the values and skills to withstand the pressure of a society where violence and conflict prevail. The persistence of conflict and its disruption of education have lasting effects on the development of children, but quality education provides an opportunity to counteract the societal effects of violence on the development of children.
The Nigerian education sector cannot be criticised for lacking any initiative in providing solutions that protect the education of children from attack or restoring peaceful environments for learning to take place. In fact, in 2018, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria became one of the first 40 countries to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD), an intergovernmental commitment to secure schools, learners, and teachers from any forms of attack. By 2021, Nigeria had made strides in its implementation and operationalisation of the SSD with the development of tools and the creation of policies that support the common goal of this initiative: securing schools and increasing the resiliency of the education sector to withstand attacks. Viewing the progress made by the country, Nigeria hosted the 4th International Conference on Safe Schools Declaration in 2021, called the Abuja Conference, where the Safe Schools Declaration Minimum Standards for Basic and Secondary Schools, the Facilitators’ Training Manual, and the National Policy for Safe, Secure, and Violence-Free Schools were presented as Nigeria’s operationalisation documents to secure schools.
We must acknowledge that a conflict-ridden society is a reflection of our education sector. Therefore, if conflict prevails, then the educational sector is the brewing pot. Quality education in the context of propagating lasting peace is a teaching and learning experience that equips children with the skills to uphold the values of peace, learn to resolve conflict without engaging in violent acts, and have a mind-set that does not justify any form of violence. This requires a restructuring of the Nigerian curriculum and capacity development for teachers to be able to implement the curriculum effectively. Indeed, without adding regulatory frameworks to how the curriculum is implemented, Nigeria risks the possibility of children being indoctrinated with information that promotes the agenda and ideology of the teachers or the community. Through quality education, Nigeria can raise children who are ambassadors of peace and reflect a better society.
It is time to invest in more holistic approaches that employ solutions that prevent the continuity of conflict within the community and within the school. Securing the future of society and children for lasting peace would involve structuring peace, unity, and nation-building into the school curriculum and the way of life of children. If we do not bring conversations about conflict and the history of Nigeria into the regulatory process of quality education, we risk raising a generation of children that are armed with the inbuilt biases of the society that raised them. Quality education is a unique opportunity for Nigeria to instil values in the children that they can imitate for lasting peace.
Priority must be given to the representation of African cultural imperatives in higher educational curricula, nurturing individuals who have a particularised understanding of the social climate and systems, allowing them to optimise this knowledge for transformational development. DAMOLA KOLA-DARE reports
I distinguished professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin, U.S, Toyin Falola has stressed the significance of deliberate efforts to decolonise the curriculum of higher education in Africa.
He defined decolonisation as a ‘comprehensive term encompassing various efforts aimed at resisting the intertwined processes of colonisation and racialisation’, adding that its objective is to bring about transformation.
According to him, interception of Africa’s cultural perception by colonially systemised education creates people who are alienated from society and its structural systems through the information and ideologies that impact them.
The don said the development of social systems becomes latent in the hands of these individuals because they can no longer flawlessly interact with their society with an African projection, given their new orientation. He noted that developments become stalled and stagnant as the drivers of these developments are functioning in a system that they cannot culturally comprehend or that is not particular to their cultural dynamics.
Falola delivered University of Lagos convocation lecture entitled: “Decolonising African Higher Education for transformational development” on Monday at the institution’s main auditorium in Akoka, Lagos.
He noted that despite the present autonomy of African universities after independence, they predominantly uphold the academic systems and structures bequeathed by the colonialists, adhering closely to Western academic standards.
According to him, within the confines of educational institutions, African youths were gradually steered towards embracing European culture, thereby eroding their previously held cultural identities. He said the proliferation of an externally imposed educational system systematically marginalised African culture, relegating it to a subordinate status and ultimately branding it “barbaric.”
“Colonial education fostered alienation and domination. The assimilation it projected through its educational system meant that the colonised had to conform to its methodologies, resulting in the obliteration of African values and cultural identity,” he said.
The don noted that though African institutions have made significant efforts to ensure that their respective curricula reflect some level of diverse perspectives and project African knowledge, these are often done in ways that are subjected to colonial methodologies, with African values or methodologies still standing a distance away from being the fundamental controlling factors in education.
He called for the pursuit of a more culturally inclusive educational environment, adding that the incorporation of African languages alongside the English language should be embraced to foster a richer and more authentic African educational experience.
According to Falola, Africa’s educational system suffers from globalism and its imminent incentive of cultural diffusion. He said the curriculum often undergoes amendments to align with global standards, and over time, the cultural imperatives that contribute to the identity of the African people are gradually removed from it.
He urged the National Universities Commission (NUC) to be concerned more with the decolonisation of education rather than advancing neoliberal standards on Nigerian education.
On the decolonisation of African higher education for transformational development, the don sought the expansion of general courses and programmes on culture, African epistemologies, promotion of African Languages as courses, creation of African Vocabulary Development and Enlightenment Bank, publishing journals in local dialects.
He also suggested an interdisciplinary combined honours programme in culture, science, and economics to strengthen efforts towards decolonisation of African universities.
“This will involve an approach to education that allows students to explore and integrate knowledge from the academic disciplines of culture, science, and economics. There are other areas where combined honours are necessary so as to multiply skills and talents suitable to changing job ,” he added.
Falola also urged the University of Lagos to create the Department of Lagoon and Sea Economies, possibly under the Faculty of Engineering or, like in other institutions, under the Faculty of Maritime and Marine Engineering and Economies.
“The examination of lagoon and sea economies discipline centres on the economic facets of endeavours connected to oceans, seas, and coastal regions. These economies are interconnected with multiple sectors, and comprehending their dynamics entails an investigation of both natural resources and human activities.
“Examining the conservation and commercialisation of lagoon and sea resources represents critical topics of discussion in its examination. This will contribute to the improvement of these resources in Nigeria and generate industrial concepts and viewpoints that promote the advancement of Nigerian economies,” he said.
Earlier Vice Chancellor, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola noted that Africa has lagged behind in development in the comity of nations because the current educational system modelled on colonial constructs has not been able to drive the all-round development, revolutionary ideas, and industries needed despite the population, heterogeneity and other positive demographic factors.
“If we are to fully develop and be unique not copycats, we must embrace who we are so we can make the right choices on what parts of other cultures we will adopt. We must rediscover our purpose, trace our heritage, reorientate our minds and develop new policies that embrace our peculiarities and unique flavour,” she said.
Chairman of the occasion, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, erstwhile Pro-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), said the future of the continent is tied to the transformation of education. He said it was imperative to revamp the curriculum across various fields.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has expressed his resolve to substantially address the problems facing the educational system in the country. While doing this, the government must also be mindful of available resources, while trying to avoid unnecessary spending. But this cannot be achieved without the input of federal lawmakers. In just six months of legislative action, the House of Representatives has tabled bills seeking to establish 95 tertiary institutions. However, the constant request for establishment of federal tertiary institutions by the lawmakers is giving stakeholders in the sector course for concern, TONY AKOWE writes in this analysis.
IN 2021, while serving as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, cautioned against members bringing to the floor of the House, bills seeking to establish one institution and agency or the other. In his argument, this puts a lot of burden on the government in the area of funding. He said then that those sponsoring such establishment bills must be able to say where the funds will be drawn from.
He noted: “At a time of reduced revenue, with pre-existing and worsening infrastructure deficits requiring significant investments, we cannot afford to keep establishing more institutions that impose a permanent liability on government income. I am not unmindful of the realities that often necessitate such legislation, yet we cannot ignore the facts that lie before us. Let us work together to reform and strengthen the institutions already in existence, and remove those no longer fit for purpose. I believe most sincerely that this is the pathway to a legacy that we can all be proud of.”
House members’ bills rise
Despite this warning, members never stop sponsoring such bills even when the President fail to sign them when passed into law, thereby making nonsense of the efforts and resources put into the passage. While a few of such bills got presidential assent, a vast majority of them either did not make it out of the National Assembly when passed by the House because of non-concurrence by the Senate. Arguably, some of the bills never made it out of the Assembly because of rivalry between the Senate and the House as many lawmakers saw such establishment as status symbol in their constituencies.
At another plenary, Gbajabiamila called for stringent conditions for establishment of universities in the country, to ensure high standard. He believed then that stringent condition will prevent the proliferation of universities in the country. He said: “There is a balance between demands by constituents and what is good when we know what is right. I think this matter will be resolved when we pass the National University Commission (NUC) bill, where perhaps, we can make establishment of universities more stringent. Otherwise, you will run into a situation where a state government or whoever will just come, get a building or three buildings together and say they want a university”. He said the stringent measures will be in place until such a time when the government is no longer funding universities; then you can have 200 in a state. But, he did not get the support of his colleagues, especially his deputy, Ahmed Idris Wase. Wase had argued then that many lawmakers have promised their constituents that they would attract tertiary institutions to their areas. Ndudi Elumelu, who served under Gbajabiamila as Minority Leader also disagreed with him saying lawmakers were under pressure from constituents to establish university.
He said: “In my opinion, I think it is not wise to shut down every voice or every member on this floor as it relates to sponsoring a bill for the establishment of either college of education or polytechnic or university in their various communities. I said this because when you go to the constituencies and you are talking to the constituents, most often, the first thing they ask you is: ‘Why are you not bringing any school to your constituency?’ When you say it is not possible and they see your colleagues sponsoring same bills for the establishment of universities, it becomes a negative for you as an individual who is representing them. So, whether it is assented to by the President or not, it is not the issue. The issue is that member is able to show that he has the interest of his or her constituents at heart.”
House members’ introduce new bills for 95 tertiary institutions.
Under the leadership of Abbas Tajudeen, the 10th House of Representatives has already proposed the establishment of about 47 new federal universities across the country. The House is also considering various bills to establish about 32 Federal Colleges of Education, 11 Federal Colleges of Agriculture and five Federal Polytechnics in addition to the already existing institutions.
The Nation’s finding revealed that the bills are part of about 962 bills passed by the House for first reading in its first six months of its inauguration. Currently, there are 45 Federal Universities, 22 Federal Medical Centre, 27 Federal Colleges of Education and 40 polytechnics across the country. The Nation discovered that some of the bills, which were passed during the Ninth Assembly, but either did not get concurrence from the Senate or not signed by the President, have either been reconsidered and passed or are currently awaiting consideration by the House. Several others are awaiting debate on the general principles and passage for second reading when the House resume from its Christmas break. The universities being considered include conventional universities, Universities of Science and Technology, Universities of Agriculture, Universities of Medical Science, University of Sport, Aviation among others. In addition to these conventional institutions, the House is considering various bills to establish colleges of vocational studies and skill acquisition, colleges of entrepreneurial studies, cancer research centres among others.
Incidentally, Speaker is leading other members in seeking for new federal institutions. He is pushing for the establishment of the Federal University of Technology, Kaduna. The bill seeks the conversion of Kaduna Polytechnic to a federal university. Similarly, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, wants a Federal University of Medical and Health Sciences located in his constituency of Bende in Abia State among others. While addressing members of the House before embarking on the Christmas break, Tajudeen disclosed that the House received and considered 962 bills, 500 motions and 153 petitions in six months. According to the Speaker, 120 of these bills have passed the second reading and are currently undergoing further review and refinement to address some of the concerns raised during the debates. He said 120 bills have been referred to committees for in-depth analysis.
Concerrns mount over new requests
However, those, who oppose the establishment of new tertiary institutions are more concerned about the standard of such public institutions in the face of poor funding for existing ones. Interestingly, the issue of poor funding has been at the centre of several industrial actions in the nation’s educational system and poor ranking globally. In 2012, a NEED assessment by the House of Representatives revealed that federal institutions, especially the universities were suffering from inadequate, dilapidated and overstretched facilities, lending credence to claims by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the 2008 ASUU/FGN agreement on the need to revitalise the universities. Under the agreement, the government was to pump about N1.5 trillion into the university system for infrastructural development within a period of three years, while working towards improving the annual budget to the sector. In spite of government’s failure to implement the terms of the agreement, leading to several strikes that has substantially altered the academic calendar, lawmakers are still pushing for more universities and other higher institutions which will also increase the funding need of government in terms of personnel and capital and overhead cost. The polytechnics have suffered worst fate, while colleges of education that are supposed to produce teachers for the nation’s primary schools are worst off.
ASUU, SSANU, others
condemn move
Unions in the academic sector have often opposed the establishment of new institutions, asking government to rather concentrate on funding existing ones. For example, during one of their outings in 2021, ASUU said the clamour for new universities was totally illogical. Abdussobor Salaam, Vice President (West), SSANU was quoted as saying: “it is totally illogical as far as we are concerned as Senior Staff of Nigerian universities, the establishment of universities has now become a charade, and it has started making a mockery of the entire university system. Because every politician wants to be seen as performing, and the only thing seen to be the index of performance is establishing a university in his domain”.
He was of the view that existing universities should be merged instead of creating new ones. Salam argued that there is no reason for two federal universities to exist in a state, while criticising state governments’ establishing new schools when they cannot meet their obligations, adding that the establishment of new universities creates more administrative expenses.
Others believe that before proposing or establishing new institutions, the status of existing ones must be considered. They argued that rather than angling for the creation of new institutions, the lawmakers should work towards improving the facilities in the existing ones, while expanding the carrying capacities of the institutions. They also want the lawmakers to focus on increasing oversight on existing schools. Some stakeholders also believe that while available institutions may not be enough to accommodate the growing population, the country is over-bloated in terms of available resources.
The ASUU also condemned the move, especially when the government is struggling hard to fund existing ones. During the Ninth Assembly, the National Assembly had several of such requests for new higher institutions of various kinds, passing several of such bills into law. But less than 10 per cent of such institutions got approval for establishment. The Nation’s finding on the bills track in the House of Representatives revealed that in most cases, lawmakers request for the establishment of both universities, Colleges of Education, Colleges of Agricultures and other specialised institutions in one state or the other.
Chairman of ASUU at the University of Ibadan Ayo Akinwole warned the government against allowing itself to be cowed into establishing new universities when the government was still struggling to fund the existing ones. He said: “Thinking of adding 47 more universities, we begin to wonder what the objective is. The objective cannot be noble at all. If it is noble, you will see the seriousness in the way the government is handling the existing ones”.
He said the Federal Government is yet to fund, equip and maintain the quality of the existing 52 universities across the country.
SIR: Educating the children is empowering the future. There is no future without the children, and there is no hope for tomorrow without an educated, illumined, and productive population. The seeds for a brighter future are our children for whom we must provide the necessary education and pedagogical accoutrements to bear our torch and carry it into the future.
According to UNICEF, as of June 2022, one in three children are out of school (OOS) in Nigeria: 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the junior secondary school (JSS) level1. 12.4 million children never attended school, and 5.9 million left school early. Nigeria’s OOS population accounts for 15 percent of the global total.
These statistics are obviously troubling, especially for a very conscientious, proactive, forward-thinking, disciplined, and determined administration. President Bola Tinubu has been on a passionate endeavour to ensure that the future of our country is secure by investing in and securing the education of our children.
He had expressed concerns about the agitating figure of out-of-school children in the country, saying: “We must address this issue by establishing more schools, recruiting teachers, and providing at least one meal a day for the school children, aligning with the progressive ideology we aim to pursue.”
At the presentation of the 2024 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly in November 2023, the president emphasised that he was prioritising ‘’human development with particular attention to children, the foundation of our nation’’. In the budget, education gets a chunk of N2.2 trillion, a much higher sum than that of 2023, which was N1.08 trillion.
Speaking with members of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) at the State House in Abuja, recently, the president asked the governors to fashion a solid scaffolding that ‘’will make the implementation of the school-feeding programme more comprehensive and successful across all states of the federation, taking into consideration the peculiarities of each locality, but working towards having all children in school’’.
The president also said ‘the school-feeding programme would encourage more investments in agriculture, particularly in livestock farming and dairy, and that the former Kano State governor and APC chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, had already worked on a proposal that would be shared for input and implementation’’.
Addressing the challenge of out-of-school children will require an inter-governmental approach, as this problem is not the exclusive burden of the government at the centre. It concerns everyone. It is about our future. Reassuringly, this is the slant from the president’s meeting with the Progressive Governors Forum.
Also, the president recently approved the sum of N683 billion as the 2024 intervention fund for public tertiary institutions in the country. Universities are to receive N1.9 billion each; polytechnics N1.1 billion each; and colleges of education, N1.3 billion each.
According to the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, Sonny Echono, 90.75 percent of the fund is earmarked for direct disbursement; 8.94 percent for designated special projects, and 2.27 percent for response to emerging issues. This is in the fervid effort to revamp our public institutions by providing the needed funding and the necessary tools and environment for academic excellence.
The Student Loan Scheme and other education-specific initiatives are in the offing as well and are aimed at addressing the long-standing issues in the education sector, as well as creating a more sustainable model of funding for tertiary education.
The whys and wherefores of these deliberate, spirited, bold, and outstanding interventions on education are to secure today and tomorrow; to protect the future of our children and that of our country.
We have to prepare our people for the world of today and of the future. Skills, education, and knowledge are the most important currencies in this new age. The Tinubu administration is bringing the future to citizens by its vehement predisposition to educating the children.
Fredrick Nwabufo, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement, Abuja.
The Old Boys Association of Government Day Secondary School (GSS), Ilorin has appealed to the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government to implement the mother tongue policy for primary education introduced by the immediate past administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
Former President Buhari in December 2022 approved a new national language policy for primary schools.
Dan Iya of Ilorin, GSS old boy, Suleiman Kawu, said this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital at this year annual general meeting of the over 100 years old institution.
Kawu, an engineer, who was the chairman of the occasion, spoke on the topic entitled: “Alumni as solution to stem the tide of alma maters’ fading glories.”
He said: “There is no-brainer that it would require time to develop instructional materials and train teachers to make this a reality.
“However, I think that the policy is too good to be discarded, and no amount is too much to invest in it.
“It tends to protect our mother tongues and traditional values from extinction, and improve the quality of our education.
Statistics has shown that using universal languages like English as medium of instruction in schools in developing countries reduce children’s assimilation because most times the languages are different from the one they speak at home.
“Some countries are trying their hands at it, and recording encouraging success.
“One of them is Zambia where the authorities announced higher test scores in Mathematics, reading and writing in primary schools in Chavuma District where it is in use since 2014.
“The place of language and its importance in the lives of nations cannot be overemphasised.
“Countries like China, South Korea, Japan are doing great in science, art and humanity largely because their medium of instruction in schools are indigenous to them.
“They are equally the official languages of their respective nations.
“We would do well to follow in their footsteps.”
Also, outgone National President of the association, Alhaji Mohammed Adebayo, urged his colleagues to spare a thought for the school.
“It is a well-known fact that the school has suffered a serious neglect under the successive administrations in the state. If not for the old boys, the story of the school would have been worse.
“All the developmental projects in the school were facilitated by the various sets of the old boys, such developmental projects include renovation of classrooms, hostels, laboratories, provision of boreholes, provision of; transformers, provision of solar power, street lights, clinical equipment, books, furniture, mattresses, sporting facilities,
“We thank the administration for the recent presentation of 500 mattresses, pillows, beddings and furniture and we are still hoping for more.’’
