'Education Is The Base And Foundation Of Any Development You Can Think Of' – Shekarau

Austyn Ogannah

The Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau has warned that if nothing is done to rescue Nigeria’s primary and secondary education system, the country may end up paying dearly for it.

Shekarau made the call on Tuesday at an event tagged: 'Discussion of a Vision for a Modern Day Nigeria' hosted by the California Nigeria Forum (CNF) at the JW Marriot Hotel in Downtown San Francisco.

Speaking on the decay in the sector, the Governor said he was saddened that about 90 percent of students who enrolled and sat for the last West African Examinations Council test and NECO failed the examination warning that it was just the beginning of a failing society because those that failed will only pull the rest of the country down.

"This last team of failures are bound to pull the few that passed the examination down. They will never let them go. We need to pause and ask ourselves what has been the problem because education is the base and foundation of any development you can think of no matter your field of specialization, no matter your career, no matter your profession. The foundation must be a sound solid primary and secondary education, if you don’t get it right you will never get it right again in life."

Continuing, he said, "Unless these levels are sound, it is going to be a vicious cycle, the tertiary will have to admit this same half baked, it is this same half baked that would be recycled and thrown back into the system and you will find that the collapse would affect every profession and every cadre of the system, the governor warned."

Explaining further, Shekarau said, "For you to have this kind of failure in the exams, it must have happened because of a long period of neglect of the sector and it will take you a long period of time to fix."

He blamed all levels of government for abandoning education for this long adding that government has been so carried away with construction of schools without paying attention to the quality of teachers and remuneration for them to enable them render quality education to students.

The governor called for reforms in the sector and charged the Peoples Democratic Party led central government to increase funding for the sector in order to begin a make over.

The governor also spoke about Kano State government’s efforts in providing quality education for its citizens adding that the Kano ICT Park, Kano’s premier information and communication technologies initiative would provide unlimited access to information to the citizens of the state.

During his visit to California, Shekarau visited internet search engine giant, Google and computer maker HP in the Silicon Valley.