A former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, has identified poor quality of teachers as one of the factors contributing to the continued decadence and loss of confidence in the Nigerian public schools.

According to Ezekwesili, qualified and competent teachers are the bedrock of quality education in any society.

The former minister, however, lamented the Nigerian situation where corruption had engendered a steady and continuous decadence in the public school education system.


 
Ezekwesili was the guest speaker at the 12th Gani Fawehinmi Annual Lecture held in Lagos on Friday by the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch.

She spoke on the topic “The collapse of public education and the past, present and future prospects of the Nigerian state.”

The former minister said, “No matter the structure or the building, no matter the amount of textbooks you put in the schools, no matter the information technology gadgets, no matter the funding you provided, if the quality of the teacher is poor, every other investment in public school would be a waste.”

Ezekwesili tied the nation’s economic prospect to its ability to not only fund education but to ensure that such funds were appropriately applied.

She said, “Our acceleration in economic growth depends on how many people are educated. Funding education is different from investing in education. An average Nigerian child has everything the society needs to make them compete with the rest of the world.”

In his own submission, popular poet, Odia Ofeimun, who was also a guest speaker at the event, said education was at the root of civilisation.

He called on the government to invest more in the education sector, saying that “any government that fails to give education to its people will always have xenophobia, tribalism and racism.”

Speaking on the state of the nation, the Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Yinka Farounbi, said if the iconic human rights lawyer “Gani were to be alive, he would not have been surprised with all revelations on corruption now.”