ASUU: Masses angry over foreign varsity education for the rich

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said the nation’s educational system might witness a revolt from children of the poor if top politicians and public office holders continue to seek foreign
university education for their children at the expense of the country’s public tertiary education.

The union condemned what it termed a “segregated education system” which conferred undue privilege on children of the elite acquiring quality education abroad, while the masses were confined to a “poor and deficient” education system.

ASUU’s president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi stated this in an exclusive interview with Blueprint.

He said the “apartheid” system of education in Nigeria could trigger a major revolution against the ruling class.

He drew a comparison between the post-second republic politicians in the country and those in the era of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, late premier of Western region and Second Republic politician and former Lagos state governor, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, both of whom he said ensured their children attended same  public schools with others during their time.

The renown academic faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent remarks where the latter accused the nation’s public varsities of not living up to their responsibilities of solving societal challenges.

“If you (President Buhari) are condemning public schools and you have not sat back to think how well the schools are; when universities here are sick and nobody is attending to them, and top public office holders like the president and vice-president take their children abroad, then how do you want Nigerians to believe in what you are saying about using education as a lever for the country’s development? Nobody will believe you! And that is why what we continue to see is lip-service to the education sector.

“Our union (ASUU) has always said that many of those who claim to lead us in this country do not love the country, because they are grooming a society of class. The children of the rich would go to special schools (private schools), while the children of poor are confined to schools without facilities and teachers. So, even within Nigeria, it is happening not to talk of abroad.

“You see, in the Second Republic, what you have now is in sharp contrast with what we had in the second republic. I can tell you that in the second republic, Chief Jakande’s children, former governor of Lagos state, were going to public secondary schools, and the teachers in all public schools were forced to sit-up, and that also encouraged the ministry officials to do their work.

“In that Second Republic, the grandson of Chief Obafemi Awolowo went to a public university in Nigeria. Those were the times we had patriots as leaders. Those we have today, they actually do not understand what it means to be a leader, because you are a leader when your life reflects what you say.

That is what we call leadership by example. That is the most effective leadership.
“That is why ASUU has been advocating for improvement in the education section and threatening to go on strike, because we cannot afford the cost of foreign training for our children. Majority of academics cannot afford the cost of foreign training for their children.

So, we don’t want a situation in which their own (politicians’) children will come back from Europe and America to enslave our own children because that is what they do. When they give their children the best of education, when they are coming back to Nigeria, they will come back and plant them as our leaders again. So, they will be the ones to be leading our children.

“And that is why you would see ASUU fighting and struggling passionately that let us equalise opportunities. We cannot equalise opportunities when you give better education to the children of the rich and a deficient education to the children of the poor. It is segregation, but what they don’t know is that if they continue like that, a time will come when the children of the poor will be forced to revolt against the children of the rich; they and their children will not be safe.

“So, nobody should be condemning ASUU because what we are doing is to ensure that we don’t continue in this circle of segregated education, because that is a local apartheid; policy of separate development: good education either locally of abroad for the children of the rich and poor and deficient education for the children of the poor, because the rich who are in government are not ready to support the education of the poor. They are not ready to create opportunities for the children of the poor to access good quality education. So, it will not help the nation at the end of the day.”

The ASUU president also faulted a recent claim by the immediate past education minister, Malam Adamu Adamu, that the federal government surpassed the 26 percent UNESCO benchmark for annual national budget
in education.

He said: “The rot and decay that we noticed in the education sector has not been significantly addressed, because when you talk of tertiary education, in particular, much of the impact we see there are from TETFund, and the TETFund was even a creation of ASUU.

“So, if the former minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu says Nigeria has surpassed the 26 percent annual budgetary benchmark for education, we are not convinced because we have not seen the impact.”

Gana says allocation unfair

Meanwhile, a  former minister of information and national orientation, Prof Jerry Gana, has described as unfair the low budgetary allocations to education by successive federal and state governments in the country. 

Gana spoke at the graduation of students of the Britarch Schools Abuja, a privately owned secondary school during which he called on the federal and state governments to invest seriously in education.

He said “Education is very key because when you transform the people, they would transform their environment.

“First and foremost, we must as a nation, invest seriously in education because that is how you transform and build a people. This budgetary allocation has been very unfair to education, I must confess.” 

 He also called for the review of teaching schemes in the schools, saying that the teachers must be well trained and sufficient especially at the higher levels.

He lamented the very low teacher students ratio, saying  some universities have 1 teacher to 300 students ratio, a situation that did not augur well for effective learning.

The professor of geography recommended a ratio of one teacher to 10 or 12 students to guarantee intensive interaction. 

 He also called for high quality facility and high quality environment to make for conducive learning.

On the supervising ministry,  Gana  said: “That area (supervisory) is being neglected and I know because they are not being taken seriously. In those days, when you have visiting teachers visit the schools, you prepare. Today, nobody cares because that is the quality control. We must take quality control very, very seriously . 

 “For instance, in the university system, the examination system where you have lecturers of other universities as supervisors is not being taken seriously these days. External examiners are quality control mechanisms and we should do so for the secondary schools and the primary schools.

 “So, I want to appeal to the administrators of education system to take these things very seriously. Funding must be excellent, the provision of facilities must be excellent supervision and quality control must be excellent.”   

 The former minister expressed delight at the quality of teachers and infrastructure at the Britach school,  and lauded the school for educating the students in learning and instilling of character in them.

He said the essence of instilling character in the students is to raise people of integrity who would provide leadership at various levels in the country.

Also speaking, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu canvassed that owners of private schools should be encouraged by government, just as he urged them to introduce skill acquisitions in their curriculum to stem the tide of unemployment.

Earlier, Executive Director Britach Schools Dr Obiageli Philips  had said  the vision of the school is “to develop the whole child,” which, she said was to develop the students not only in academics but also in character.

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