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The nation’s
economy will continue to be in the doldrums if the education sector is
not adequately funded, the zonal coordinator of the Colleges of
Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), Femi Keshinro, has said.

Mr Keshinro, who
spoke yesterday at the opening ceremony of South West Zonal COEASU
conference held at Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo, said poor
funding of education is affecting the kind of graduates being churned
out by the tertiary institutions in the country.

Speaking on the
theme, “Teacher Education in a Democratized Nigeria. Challenges and Way
forward”, he linked the failure of the nation’s economic system to the
collapse of the educational sector.

“Education is the
substratum of national growth as well as socioeconomic growth of any
country. For several years, the nation’s educational sector has been
torpid due to poor funding of education by government at all levels,”
he said. “Over the years, employers of labour and other stakeholders
have continued to complain on the poor quality of the average Nigerian
graduates from various tertiary institutions, without providing funds
to give the sector a face-lift. It is not an understatement; some
institutions do not have enough equipment in their library to give
students qualitative education. Some cannot even boost of a standard
library let alone having up-to-date books.”

Failed leaders

The College’s
COEASU Chairman, Smart Olugbeko, said the present situation in the
educational sector has shown that our country does not run a democratic
government and the leaders have failed woefully.

Mr Olugbeko said
the government has relegated teachers’ education to the lowest level,
adding that this has made it to fall short of public expectations.

The Provost of the
Institution, Adeyemi Idowu, said tertiary institutions, which were
meant to produce human capital in order to achieve and develop the
nation, have been bedevilled with several problems that hindered such
opportunities.

He urged the union to deliberate on issues that would solve the
problem of the educational system in the country rather than what would
fetch them money.