A former Managing Director of Daily Times Newspapers, Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi, has said that Nigeria’s educational system is in bad shape and needs urgent attention.
Ogunbiyi, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Monday, urged governments at all levels to intervene, as a matter of urgency, to save the nation’s educational system from collapse.
Although he commended the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, for striving to improve on what his predecessor had done, the veteran journalist, however, noted that all was still not well with the education sector, particularly at tertiary level.
“I’m glad that the current minister is trying to build up on what his predecessor did, but what we need now is a leadership that will give education the desired attention.
“I am the immediate past Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife and I remember writing a paper that things were not very good with our education system,” he said.
Ogunbiyi, a former Editorial Board member and Executive Director, Marketing and Corporate Affairs of the Guardian Newspapers, called for proper funding of education as a way of redeeming the sector.
According to him, any country that lacks ‘educational push’ is doomed, adding that with the condition of the public universities, some of them might not survive the next 25 years.
“In the next 25 years, some of the universities may fold up owing to neglect by successive administrations,” he said.
Ogunbiyi said that the only solution was to inject more money into the system.
“The United Nations has predicted that by 2050, Nigeria’s population will be between 350 and 400 million, 40 per cent of whom will need higher education.
“What this means is that we will need to build twice the number of universities we have now to accommodate them.
“But as we speak, JAMB is not able to admit 1.5 million students who are qualified annually because the universities have no space for them. What will happen in 25 years time? So it’s like we are in trouble.
“Therefore, we must allow private entities to build more universities while the Federal Government must put more money into its own,” he said.
Ogunbiyi, who said that Nigeria should take a cue from Indian’s educational system.“On a street (in India), you can have five universities and then you have some specialised ones that government is seriously funding,” he said.
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