Declare State Of Emergency In Education Sector, ASUU Tells FG
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Sunday called on the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to declare state of emergency in the country’s education sector.
The chairman, ASUU, University of Ibadan, Dr Deji Omole who said this in Ibadan, challenged the federal government to ensure that the kind of education Nigerian children are exposed to are of global standards and at par with what his children had in their schools abroad.
ASUU said it was sad for a government that fails to improve access to education for teeming millions of youth yearning for education to state the same youth and sitting down and waiting for freebies.
“What has the government done to over salvage the condition 12 million out of school children in Nigeria? What has the government done to ensure employment for over 16 million unemployed Nigerians? What plan does the government have for graduates who go through the mandatory National Youth Service Corp every year but frustrated by lack of job and hostile environment to even start a small and medium scale business? If the government fails to attend to the needs of the Youth today, they will become nightmares for Nigeria in the future.”
ASUU recalled that the minister had raised the hopes of declaring emergency in the educational sector of the country in April this year apparently to proffer solutions to the low quality of education being offered Nigerian children.
It added that it became imperative for the minister to be reminded that the future of the children of the masses must not be used to play politics with the declaration and wondered why in the last week of April, the plan to declare emergency in the sector had not been perfected.
ASUU wondered the methodology to be used in upgrading quantity to quality education following the paltry seven percent of the National Budget allocated to education by the Buhari administration.
It lashed out at the government for not investing in the future of Nigeria through education but invests in propaganda, noting that majority of those in government enjoyed free education, health and other social services when they were younger in Nigeria.
It lamented that the kind of education being given to Nigerian children are below universal standards.
