TheCable

The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) says Nigeria’s academic institutions have continued to churn out half-baked graduates owing to the poor quality of education in the country.

The group said this at a press conference in Lagos, on Tuesday.

Hassan Taiwo, national coordinator of the group, said the situation of education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels in the country is deplorable as the “federal government and the state governments have failed woefully in the funding of public education”.

He said issues of under-funding and commercialisation of the education sector, suppression of democratic rights in tertiary institutions, and the raging issue of sex for grades on various campuses require urgent attention.

“Consequently, the condition and quality of education has continued to nose-dive. At the moment, the number of out of school children has risen to 13.5million. But even for those in school, they have to endure poor facilities, outmoded curriculum and inadequate or unmotivated teaching staff,” the statement read.

“Half-hearted efforts by some governments at Federal and state levels to reposition the sector have ended up as white-elephants projects that have neither repositioned the sector nor improved the quality of education.

“This deplorable situation exists not only at the primary and secondary levels of education but also at the tertiary levels with many public Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of education lacking standard laboratories and libraries. The result is that Nigeria’s education sector continues to churn out half-baked graduates at different levels.”

The group condemned the ongoing N150,000 stream 2 admission at the Lagos State University (LASU), saying it is “a ploy to commercialise education, exploit admission seekers and their poor parents”.

“The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) stands against all attempts to commercialise education and price it out of the reach from poor working class backgrounds. We demand immediate reversal of hiked fees on campuses across the country,” it read.

“We also demand improved funding of public education at all levels and democratic management of schools and educational institutions by elected committee comprising representative of workers and students union in order to prevent wastage and mismanagement.”

It also asked for government’s intervention in the alleged victimisation of workers in LASU, Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) and Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED).

The group said Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, should be more active in responding to happenings within the education sector in the state.

“The ERC believes that the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu who is the visitor to these institutions is failing in his duties for largely showing indifference or lack of interest in the developments in the three institutions. We call on the Lagos State government to reign in the despotic managements in the three institutions in order to prevent the ongoing agitations of workers from snowballing into full blown crises that may further affect the calendar of the institutions,” it said.