A former executive secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) has called on the federal and state governments to make education at the basic and secondary levels free and compulsory.
Okojie stated this on Friday in Abuja at the launch of the Thomas Agnes Christianah Okojie (TACO) Charity Foundation, named after his parents and wife and featured the inaugural edition of the Julius Okojie lecture series titled, The Future of the Nations University System.
Prof Okojie said Nigerian leaders owed every Nigerian child free primary and secondary education to enable them occupy their spaces in their daily living.
He expressed displeasure with the state of primary education as pupils still learn under the tree during one of his tours to schools around the country, saying students studying under the tree would eventually be half-baked, which, according to him, is not good for the country’s growth and development.
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“Local, state and federal government structures are not working. The federal government is still doing basic education when it is the function of the local government, while secondary schools are for states. Having worked through the public service, I know that a girl who has no education does not have a space in this country. So, I have been promoting that crusade, informally using my family house at Uromi in Edo State,” he said.
