Stakeholders advise FG to declare state of emergency in education

Education stakeholders’ have called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency declare a state of emergency in the sector to give room for massive investment.

The stakeholders spoke in separate interviews with our reporter in Abuja on Tuesday.

Mr Simeon Abiina, founder of Elshadai Kiddies Varsity said adequate investment in the education sector would make the teaching profession more attractive.

According to him, 20 per cent of the budget should go to the sector as this will spur proper investment in the research institute, training and retraining of manpower.

“There should be a deliberate policy on the part of the Federal Government to develop the technical know-how, manpower and research institutes to forestall non-professionalism.

“Government should help improve on the sector by declaring a state of emergency and investing in the sector.

“ Teaching profession should be made attractive, training and retraining of teachers as well as lucrative salary package will grow the sector, “he said.

Mrs Olayemi Adeyemi, Headmistress, Methodist Primary School, Oke-Omi, Osun noted that declaring a state of emergency in the sector would fast track measures that would lead the sector to its greater height.

Adeyemi called on the Federal Government to embark on an aggressive motivation for teachers across the state of the federation, especially at the primary and secondary school levels.

She said that judging by the statistics of education graduates in recent times; “many are looking elsewhere for lucrative jobs because the remuneration in the system is poor’’.

“It is worrisome to see that students don’t want to go into education-related careers because they believe teachers are the poorly paid in the society.

“This trend, I believe must change; the career should be made to be one of the best, if not the best.

“There should be an improvement in the quality of teachers by training and retraining, while new ones should also be recruited into the system.

She explained that the government should also refocus its priority on the implementation of infrastructure in schools, and invest in building new ones.