As the world marked the International Day of Education, members of the National Association of Seadogs, Katamaran Deck, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, on Tuesday, sensitised the public on the need to give priority to Education as a means of investing in people.
To celebrate the global event, members of the NAS Katamaran Deck (making up Ijebu-Ode/Remo branch) embarked on a road walk, displaying the event’s banner and distributing flyers to members of the public to enlighten them on the need to make education their priority for the good of the future of the child and the larger society.
The members of the Katamaran Deck further took their public sensitisation programme to a radio station at Ijebu Imushin, Lion 93.9FM, where the Capoon of the Deck, Mr Olumide Fagbohunka featured on a radio talkshow, Faaji Unlimited anchored by Aare Abimbola Azeez Rabiu, popularly called Alenuloro Presenter.
Fagbohunka on the radio show, spoke on the importance of education to every child.
He stressed that Education should be an inalienable right of every child in Nigeria and all over the world.
The Head, Department of Nigerian Languages and Literature, College of Humanities, Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun, Ogun State, Dr Wahab Ibrahim, who was the guest speaker on the radio show, analysed the theme, “To Invest in People, Prioritise Education.”
Ibrahim lamented the level to which education had deteriorated in Nigeria, saying the development could be traced back to government’s constant failure to put round pegs in round holes regarding the country’s education sector.
The university don noted that no developing nation desiring continuous growth and development can afford to joke with the education of her citizens.
January 24 is International Day of Education around the world. The day was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2018 to highlight the role education has towards peace and development.
According to the UN, 244 million children and youths are out of school, and 771 million adults are illiterate. Their right to education is being violated and it is unacceptable.
Education is the most powerful tool to break the cycle of poverty, erase gender inequalities and stimulate economic growth.
Earlier in a press statement issued in Abuja to commemorate the special day, the NAS Capoon, Mr Abiola Owoaje, expressed the concern of the Pyrates Confraternity about the sorry state of child education in Nigeria.
He said the labelling of Nigeria as the country with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world should seriously worry everyone.
Owoaje blamed the various problems inhibiting education in Nigeria on lack of political strategy and will on the part of the authorities.
Below is the full text of the statement by the NAS Capoon:
International Day of Education 2023: Nigeria’s Education Sector At a Crossroads – The Time to Act is Now!
It is on a very sombre note that Nigeria joins the rest of the global community in commemorating this year’s International Day of Education. The solemnity is compelled by the current morass in which Nigeria’s education system has found itself.
The grim statistics presented on the decadence of Nigeria’s educational sector on this very day last year now threatens to evoke an eerie nostalgia as the nation’s education sector has further plunged into abysmal conditions since then. From 10.5 million out-of-school children in 2020 – a whopping 1 in 12 of all out-of-school children globally, Nigeria now has over 20 million out-of-school children. These latest numbers have made the World Bank to posit that the crisis in Nigeria’s education sector means that 70 percent of 10 year olds are incapable of understanding a simple sentence or performing basic numeracy tasks. This is an unsustainable state of affairs!
As the world marks this fifth anniversary of the International Day of Education, it is instructive for all relevant stakeholders to take recourse in, and gain insight from the day’s theme – To invest in people, prioritise education. This theme was selected after very meticulous deliberations on the increasing inequities which continue to frustrate national and international efforts at achieving inclusive and equitable education, and converting verbal commitments and aspirations into tangible outcomes.
The National Association of Seadogs, Pyrates Confraternity, has continued to express grave concern about the parlous state of child education in Nigeria. That a country of almost 200 million people (with an average age of 18) has the highest number of out- of- school children in the world should be a source of worry to everyone. The potential menace which a lack of quality education amongst such a vast section of society can unleash is unimaginable. The astronomical out-of-school numbers in Nigeria can be said to be as a result of multiple factors, chiefly, the adverse impact of perennial terrorism and banditry on education, especially in the northern Nigeria, and the cavalier attitude with which governments across board have handled issues pertaining to education – from budgeting to matters of policy formulation and implementation.
We are aware that a lot of the issues bedevilling education in Nigeria persist because of a disturbing lack of political strategy, and political will, in the scanty instances where a semblance of such strategy exists. Governments, over the years, have continued to allocate paltry percentages of the yearly national budget to education, in spite of United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation, (UNESCO)’s persistent recommendation of at least 15 – 20%. In the last 8 years, Nigeria’s education budget has hovered between a meagre 5.68% and 8.8% of the national budget. Allocating 8.8% of this year’s budget to education may look like an improvement on previous years, but in the face of the odds that continue to mount, it can best be described as perfunctory.
In the wake of the devastation caused by lockdowns and lost school time occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, crippling insecurity, a chronic dearth of infrastructure, declining quality of curriculum and teaching, and worsening out-of-school statistics, we urge the Federal Government of Nigeria to immediately declare a state of emergency in the education sector.
We strongly recommend that the Better Education Service Delivery For All, which was rolled out by the Federal Government in 2018, and which has reportedly ensured the enrolment of over 1 million out of school children, needs to be re-evaluated and primed for improved results. The Alternative School Programme, which came on stream in January 2021 as a federal government education and social welfare programme for pupils has not quite made a much needed impact beyond the pageantry of its inauguration day. The Federal Government of Nigeria should lead from the front in ensuring qualitative, affordable and compulsory education for a young demographic bursting at the seams, and upon whose frail shoulders the very future of the country rests. The rankling dishonesty that characterised the government’s handling of the recent industrial action by public university lecturers does not present much hope.
The International Day of Education is another opportune moment for all stakeholders to reflect and redouble their efforts to ensure that the future of present and future generations is secured. The approach has to be holistic and sincere, else we run a grave risk of contending with tens of millions of young people, bereft of formal education, unable to compete with peers across the world, and cannon fodder for all sorts of social vices. Anything short of a concerted effort, hinged on increased funding and a collective will to see plans to fruition, will come back to bite one and all.
Abiola Owoaje
NAS Capoon
Abuja
