Inadequate Funding, Bane Of Nigeria’s Education Sector – Osun Lawmaker

By Israel Afolabi

Chairman, Osun House of Assembly Committee on Education, Honourable Oladoyin Bamisayemi has disclosed that poor funding has crippled the Nigerian education sector.

Hon. Oladoyin told OSUN DEFENDER on Wednesday during a chat at his House of Assembly office in Osogbo that if the Nigerian child must enjoy quality education, the country must jettison quantity for quality.

He justified the Federal Government’s attempt to increases school fees in all its tertiary institution across the nation.

According to him, “if we want quality education in this country, it is not cheap and if we must sustain our university education system, there must be an adequate funding and only way is for students to pay school fees”.

“If N400,000 is used to raise a pupil per year, it is not too expensive, hence, we need to increase our school fees to compete with other countries of the world “ he added.

The lawmaker who represented Ife South state constituency advised government to charge school fees to curtail incessant strike in the higher institution of learning so that lecturers can concentrate on students.

He said that Nigeria student needs to assimilate knowledge not just for the sake of passing examination which will help them in future endeavors.

It would be recalled that the Zonal Coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of University, [ASUU] Ibadan Zone, Dr. Ade Adejumo alleged that Federal Government is planning to introduce N350,000 tuition in its universities across the country.

The lawmaker urged parents not to seek cheaper education for their wards because it leads to nowhere in this new generation.

He said, “If we are after free education, we do not want progress for our children and their education and now that we have already reach a saturation point, we do not march our production in Nigeria”.

The lawmaker also lamented on excess production of graduates from various universities every year while urging government to establish vocational skill centres so that students would benefit from it.

“We have thousands of both polytechnics and universities graduates without skill, this is a shame of a country and it is no value indeed, we need to be practical not theoretical, it is better for people to go for technical education for skill”.

He urged graduates to look for special skill that can put money into their pocket instead of roaming about the streets.

Hon. Oladoyin added that to sustain a professor that earned not less than N700,000 in a month at university with the current situation, “we need to increase fees to meet up”.

“A professor earn not less than N700,000, how do you expect to pay from N30,000 school fees in our universities, why is it that we heard no strike in private universities, the logic is that they charge economic fees”.

He however asked government to act as a trustee if we want the best for young ones and to sustain development that will not affect tomorrow’s interest.