Former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has raised concern about the need for improvement in Nigeria’s education system.
The former Edo State governor spoke at an event on Thursday in Abuja organised by the Transforming D’ Intellectual Firmament of Africa-Community Development Initiative (TiFA-CDI) and Policy House International.
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The event was meant to devise ways of tackling the problem of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
He said citizens should “harass, terrorize and engage” their governors to prioritize education in the country.
Oshiomhole said teachers in schools were not performing their duties effectively because they’re “angry and hungry.”
He said, “Talking about education, one thing I want us to do is not to be carried away by politics. We have a law that says if a child is not in school, the parents should be prosecuted.
“That is the law of universal compulsory education, but as we speak, we have children who are being taught under the tree, that is if they are being taught at all. And we have teachers who can’t even spell their names and they can only spread illiteracy.
“It is about harassing, engaging, terrorising and if I may quote Obasanjo, even behaving like a rebel to force governors and governments to get priorities right with regard to education.”
Oshiomhole noted that it was wrong to boast of the ultra-modern government house while most schools were dilapidated and teachers were not paid.
He added, “You have angry and hungry people in the classroom. They can’t be nice to our children and when they show no kindness to those children, those children grow up without care, without feeling, believing that society is uncaring.”
