The Vice Chancellor of Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu (OUI), Professor Chibuzo Nnate Nwoke, on Tuesday described the purported plan by the Kaduna State governor, Mr Nasir el-Rufai to sack about 21,780 for failing primary school test as a fallout of corruption and rots in Nigeria’s education sector.
He said there was a need to checkmate the destructive effect of corruption in the education sector, saying the government should strive to commit more financial and manpower resources to strengthen primary school education, which he said, signposts the foundation of education for all categories of people.
Addressing a press conference as part of the series of events, heralding the 5th convocation ceremonies of OUI, the VC said “the standard of education has taken a nosedive. Corruption has succeeded in throwing standard overboard and parents solicit for their wards to cut corners. Parents have been known to facilitate cheating for their children.”
According to Nwoke, “corruption in general sense has affected our education and our values have fizzled away. The education sector has suffered. I visited China recently and we got to a primary school, where we interacted with some people. We discovered that in Japan, primary school teachers earn more money that the teachers in the universities. That is the foundation. I mean the primary school is the foundation for all children to grow and solid structure must be laid. We need to bring back values.”
“We need to address the problems in the education sector frontally and the government needs to implement revolutionary policies to address the rots in the education sector,” he added.
Earlier in his remark, Nwoke disclosed that Oduduwa University, Ipetumodu would be graduating a total of 529 first degree students from two colleges during the institution’s 5th convocation ceremonies on Thursday, explaining that “out of this number, 27 students came out in First Class Division, 278 are in Second Class Upper Division, and the total number in the Second Class Lower Division is 216. A total of 8 graduands fell into the Third Class category.”
He further stated that “a further analysis of the statistics reveals that both the overall best and second best graduating students are male, respectively, from the Department of Computer Science, Ramon Adedoyin College of Science and Technology and the Department of Accounting, College of Management and Social Sciences. They are, respectively Mr Kabir A Ibrahim and Mr Abdulganiu Bello.”
