Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Amaechi Harps On Education For Northern Children

Rotimi Chibueke Amaechi, the Governor of Rivers State on Monday pointed out that education inequality was the reason why insurgency prevailed and got rooted in the Northern part of the country. 
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He made the assertion while speaking at the 2nd Progressive Governors Lecture Series with the theme ”Crisis in the education sectors” held at Africa Hall, Government House, Kano.

Amaechi, who was the guest speaker at the forum, noted that uneducated youth are time-bomb, and went ahead to show a percentage of students passing WAEC in 2013 in the north with Sokoto having 7.6 per cent, Zamfara 5.2, Katsina 7.2, Kano 17.2, Jigawa 11, Borno 16.6, Gombe 4, Bauchi 7, Adamawa 5.3, Taraba 9.6 and Kwara 17.4, warned that the statistics portend a great danger in the north and the country in general.

The governor further pointed out that Nigeria has 70,000 schools, with 1.2 million classrooms, and that the country needed N22 billion annually for the procurement of 200,000 books to each school, but he alleged that the country spent less than 12.2 per cent of education budget on capital expenditure.

He challenged the policy of almajiri schools system,saying it will have negative impact on the psychology of the child if he lives to be called beggar.

Rotimi said in 2013, N60 billion was budgeted for education but only 14 percent was spent on capital projects.

"This is the reason why there is Boko Haram" he said.
The governor also stated that instead of addressing the problem of falling standard of education, the country went ahead to established NECO to create more problems, adding that if it fails tomorrow there will be State Examination Council, SECO.

Amaechi presented another statistics which showed the north as having the largest percentage of youth inactivity, with the North West at the top.

The governor also gave another statistics of enrollment into Polytechnics and Mono technics in the north where 232, 400 students were enrolled but only 51,000 were able to complete.

He decried the level of corruption in the country which is killing the system and wouldn’t allow the nation and the economy to grow and prosper.

Also speaking at the forum, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria's former military head of State, said that there is no condition more pressing in this country now than unemployment and insecurity.

Buhari shared the policy of his administration in 1983 in addressing education problem where experts designed a clear cut education policy which stated that education was the right of all citizens in Nigeria, .
The former head of state said that the country needs quality education for development, and noted that without it the country has limited opportunity for employment.

He reminded the forum of the commitments of late Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna, Obafemi Awolowo for dedicating 40 percent of their budget to education.

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