IMCOSA: Onanuga, Adeduntan, others decry falling standard of education

It was a gathering of the movers and shakers in Nigeria’s socio-political space on Sunday as Old Students of Ijebu Muslim College under the umbrella of Ijebu Muslim College Old Students Association (IMCOSA) converged on Classique Events Place, Oregun, Lagos to have a fund-raising luncheon preparatory to the 70th anniversary of their alma mater.

The event, which served as an opportunity for speakers to take the audience down memory lane, evoked nostalgic feelings and created room for the old students to renew their commitments to the development of their school as they shared testimonies of how the school had moulded them.

Also, the event was an opportunity to dwell on the state of education in Nigeria. The guest speaker, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), decried the falling standard of education in Nigeria.

Onanuga, who is an old student of the school, said Nigeria is not attracting the best brains to the classroom.

The media mogul submitted that if the narrative does not change, “we may not be able to produce a generation of employable, enlightened and educated leaders of tomorrow”.

He faulted cut off marks for admission into Nigeria’s higher institutions of learning, describing them as abysmally low, wondering what becomes of the children taught by graduates from Nigeria’s Colleges of education as it has the lowest cut off mark of 100.

“From my calculations, 1,366,509 students, out of 1,792,719 scored below 200 over 400. Only 426,206 students scored above average.

Now, let’s see what JAMB recommended as cut off marks for admission into tertiary schools at its 19th Policy meeting in Gbongan, Osun State in June: 160 was set as national minimum admission for admission into universities; 140 as minimum into private universities, 120 for public polytechnics and 110 for admission into private polytechnics.

The worst cut off mark was prescribed for colleges of education – 100, that is 25 per cent of 400.

“I have given these figures to show the extent of our problems: candidates with the worst scores, the most minimal scores are to be recruited into our colleges of education.

The graduates of these schools would come out several years later to be the teachers of our children in primary and secondary schools.”

Also, Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, Managing Director and Chief Executive of First Bank Nigeria Limited, decried the high rate of out-of-school children in Nigeria, saying it is the highest in the world at 10.5 million.

The First Bank CEO, who is also an old student of Ijebu Muslim College, lamented the low enrollment rate in schools, noting that the South West geopolitical zone that is known to place much importance on education cannot be excluded.

Adeduntan explained that where enrollment was high, facilities and infrastructure were not expanded to support the level of enrollment. He, however, called for massive investment in the future of children to prevent poverty and anarchy.

“If you don’t invest in the future of the children of today, the alternative is anarchy, the alternative is poverty, and I believe that is not what we desire for our city, that is not what we desire for our state and that is not what we desire for our motherland, Nigeria,” he added.