Provide better education roadmap, lawmakers urge FG

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Dr. Ali Ahmad, and the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Mr. Razak Atunwa, have called on the Federal Government to initiate policies that would boost the quality of education.

The government’s current policies, the duo said, were not friendly to students, especially those in higher institutions.

They spoke in Ilorin, Kwara State, during the first Pan African Students’ Parliamentary Conference in honour of Ahmad.

The theme of the conference was, ‘Role of student parliament in peaceful co-existence: Connecting Africa’s future leaders.’

Ahmad, while frowning on the lack of conducive learning environment, said the development was only exposing the students to difficult times.

He said, “The Golden Age of Nigerian education can still come back. Nigeria has not changed. The people have not changed; only those in government have changed. Education is not in their priority list. So, until we do that, our students will continue to suffer and our education will continue to suffer.

“I remember those times, when you graduated from the university in Nigeria, you were equal with those who graduated from Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. Now, we are 1,000 steps behind them.”

In his remarks, Atunwa urged the government to accord education priority. He added that it was imperative to provide job opportunities or enabling business environment for the absorption of students after graduation.

Atunwa said, “More needs to be done in terms of education. We need to improve on the standard of our education. It is not just about building classrooms. We need to get qualified lecturers, teachers and people who know what they are doing so that we can prepare our children for the future.

“Again, having done that, we need to give our youths hope; they need to know that when they complete their education, there is hope for employment and there is prospect of them making a good standard of living.”