By Kassim Afegbua
I have often tried to ask myself very critically if the present All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Muhammadu Buhari has indeed achieved any tangible mileage in its educational agenda for the country. I was just wondering over what has changed or what is set to change. I took cognisance of the school feeding programme in a decayed infrastructural environment. I took cognisance of the promise of the APC to transform the education sector and effect a holistic curriculum that can contend with the needs of 21st Century world, with changing dynamics and sophistication in a new world order driven by technology. I noticed that ASUU strike punctured academic calendar in time past, and its recent threat of another strike is yet again an opportunity to put the country on the reverse gear. I kept asking myself what are the creativity, innovations and inventions within the academia that have impacted on the growth of the country. What exactly are our academics doing to further the narrative of a new Nigeria driven by technology and knowledge?
What do we produce from the Ivory Towers as response to problems confronting us in the country? Beyond the public commentaries from our experts, what have they invented in the different aspects of our lives to provide ready made solutions to our nagging problems? What exactly are our professors professing? What do they do with all the researches from undergraduate to postgraduate levels in the universities? They gather dust on the shelves or become handy disposable wraps for “akara” sellers. Almost every item is imported in our laboratories. Almost every equipment is imported in our hospitals, yet we have seasoned professors who excel so proudly and profoundly outside the country through consultancy services they render to those who pay heavily for them. When you take a sample population of Nigerians in diaspora, you will find a collection of some of the best brains in the world, inventing solutions to global problems and offering other perspectives to developmental problems across the globe. Rather than invent, create and innovate, the news from our higher institutions talks about sexual harassment, sex-for-marks tales, lecturers “being set up”, and other categories of inanities that easily pre-occupy idle minds.
Read more:https://www.newtelegraphng.com/2019/08/whither-nigerias-education/
