– A former President, Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Oladipo
Fashina, on Monday said that 54 per cent of
Nigerians were illiterates.
Fashina spoke at the opening of National
Education Summit with theme “Toward a System
of Education for Liberation in Nigeria,’’ held in
Abuja.
He said that only 15 per cent of Nigerians had
managed to attain higher education since the
country’s independence 54 years ago.
“The present crisis in education is an offshoot of
the neo-liberal misdirection which Nigerian people
did not choose.
“Our rulers still insist in the main that the solution
to the crisis in education lies with flooding the
country with private schools, universities and
commercialised education to operate in
acceptance with market rules.
“This explains why public expenditure on
education has never gone anywhere near the
UNESCO prescription that each country should
expend at least 26 per cent of its national budget
on education,’’ he said.
Fashina said that Nigerian education had also
witnessed policy summersaults arising from
inadequate conception of the philosophy, purpose
and practice of education and class domination.
He noted that for effective national development
in the education sector, it must be re-
conceptualised in a manner that would make it
capable of performing its transformative functions
for the nation at large.
Fashina said that the summit would chart a new
pathway for educational delivery capable of
fostering the needed body of knowledge, skills,
value and ethics in liberating education system,
among others.
“We are expected to come up with viable
proposals the acceptance and execution of which
will bring about a re-engineering and liberation of
the education sector.’’
The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim
Shekarau, commended the organisers of the
summit, which he said was timely.
Shekarau, who was represented by Mrs Ann
Harrison, the Deputy Director, Institution Services,
said that the summit would not only identify
mistakes but strengthen the sector.
“The summit will also strengthen the pitfalls to
avoid in the future and also come up with
recommendations that will move the sector
forward,’’ he said.
Prof. Biodun Jeyifo, an academic don at Harvard
University, Cambridge U.S., who is also the
Chairman of the summit condemned the
educational module which Nigeria still adopts.
Jeyifo said that lack of proper implementation of
the education policies were the reasons Nigerian
universities produced graduates that were
unemployable.
He noted that corruption and policy somersault
were at the core factors limiting the education
potentials of the country.
The summit was jointly organised by Senior Staff
Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU)
National Association of Academic Technologists
(NAATS).
Others are Non-Academic Staff Union of
Educational, Associated Institutions (NASU) and
including coalition of civil societies. (NAN)


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