While we keep criticizing and insulting President Buhari,our
siblings and children are studying on bare floor like ants.
Don't we know whose responsibility it is to provide something as
basic as desks for these children? Are we pretending it's easy and healthy to
learn in this posture? Or is our state actually too poor to provide desks for
these innocent children?
I'm sure our people who first embraced western education under
the colonialists when there was no oil money at least enjoyed the dignity of
sitting on desks to learn. Why should children born in the 21st Century when
their contemporaries in other nations learn with computers sit on dirty, rough
floor in the name of classrooms?
The policy thrust of the present administration in Akwa Ibom
State is industrialization.
To the best of my knowledge, real industrialization has its
foundation in sound education. A government which cannot prioritize education
shouldn't talk about industrialization as if it's just an event. I believe a
proper 21st Century education of global standards will likely result in
industrialization. We won't get it right if we keep putting the cart before the
horse. Industrialization is far beyond sloganeering. A genuine drive for
industrialization must first take into account the manpower needs of the
envisaged industries even far into the future. This is where the school system
comes in.
Perhaps,the poor state of infrastructure and amenities in our
public schools will pale into complete insignificance if compared with the
quality of manpower available to train our kids. It's trite that an illiterate
or semi literate cannot impart academic knowledge and skills.
Please let's first things be done first. We can't do the right
thing at the wrong time and get the right result. I don't know of any
industrialized society with a poor school system. Just as societies with sound
educational systems are generally prosperous.Learning under a decent, organized
and dignified environment can't produce the same outcome as doing same under
filthy, disorganised and squalid environment.
As frightening as the results of the Teachers' Competency Test
administered by the Kaduna State Government seems, I personally endorse that
audacious move by Governor El- Rufai because it will rid the state's education
system of misfits. If that government musters the political will to weild the
big stick with the support of stakeholders, the result can only be imagined.
This is leadership with the right sense of priority.
How can a miserable 11, 220 out of 33, 000 teachers score 75%
and above in a primary four test? Is this not scandalous?
Akwa Ibom State may not be as bad as Kaduna but I earnestly
doubt if it is considerably better because I have interacted with some of our
contemporary teachers. They are definitely not the calibre that taught some of
us.
As a primary school pupil, I sat on decent desks under competent
and dedicated teachers.
Can these children who crawl on bare floor like animals to learn
under untrained teachers grow to supply the needed manpower for the
industrialized Akwa Ibom State? Or like the Ibom Specialist Hospital, are we
importing the bulk of manpower overseas?
Akwa Ibom State is too blessed for her future to crawl like ants
on bare floor in the name of learning. In sane societies, other needs queue
behind education and health.
Omen Bassey.
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