SystemSpecs calls for a state of emergency in Nigeria’s education sector

Indigenous tech giant, SystemSpecs, has called on the federal government to declare education as an emergency in Nigeria, due to the precarious state of the educational system in the country.

Speaking at the Business of Education Summit recently hosted by Edusko Africa in Lagos, SystemSpecs’ Executive Director, Deremi Atanda urged the government and every stakeholder who identifies with the problems of education in the country not to handle these drawbacks with levity.

“People really need to know what it means when there is a crisis in a sector. It means that the country cannot make any meaningful economic development or growth if we don’t fix that sector.”

Atanda also called for the designation of a national emergency coordinator who will be held responsible for organising a nationwide intervention in education, just as Nigeria had for COVID-19.

The call to action by the pan-African tech giant comes amidst concerns for the poor state of education in Nigeria. According to UNICEF, one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, more than 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Even when children go to school, the education they receive is often of low quality; based on outdated curricula without impacting the critical skills necessary to compete with children from other parts of the world. One of the areas where this is obvious is Science, Technology and Innovation. The technology advocate, therefore, called for the mainstreaming of coding for Nigerians right from childhood.