Revamp education sector, Ayorinde urges FG

 Chief Bolaji Ayorinde, the Special Counsel to Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, has urged the Federal Government to initiate policies which would revamp the education sector.

He also urged government to create an enabling framework for media participation in the fight against corruption.

Ayorinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, spoke in Ibadan on Wednesday at a symposium organised by Lady Gwen Media and Initiative for Information Arts and  Culture Development.

While speaking on ‘The Media and Good Governance, ‘ Ayorinde identified the roles of the traditional and social media in national discourse and information dissemination.

Ayorinde also stated that good governance education for the populace must start from the primary school level.

“We must have a revamp of our educational policies.

” We have started well, particularly in the South West with the security thing as other parts of the country are beginning to emulate and that has always been the history of Nigeria.

“We need to go further and look at our educational policies; what we are teaching our children, what they are imbibing them with at a very early age.

“For good governance the policy on education has to be revamped and a lot of resources have to be spent on education,” Ayorinde said.

In her remarks, Edem Ossai, one of the panelists and public affairs analyst, said the media had to fit into the new role that had emerged due to technology.

“The new priority must be a heavy media literacy. There must be an effort immediately to give a new education to every citizen about how to fact check before sharing, about posting things that are only verified, don’t share rumours.

“Rumors have the ability to render people dead if you don’t verify certain facts as we saw with the destruction in Cameroon just by sharing a single rumour.

“Media literacy is an immediate priority, that you are educated does not mean you have the new kind of media literacy in the 21st century with the way the internet has changed the media landscape,” she said.

Ossai noted that media literacy should start from the primary school level to create a better future for the country and tackle new threats to the role of media in good governance.

The convener of the symposium, Gwendolyn Oshoniyi, said the essence of the event was to sensitise people on effective use of the media in relation to good governance.

“One of the things that is paramount in my heart is for us to have a better society, an egalitarian society where each individual will be able to say I have been able to contribute to the development of Nigeria.

“To say that as individuals, not as a media, we would know how to source for news, how to generate story and know what to put out there to have less false news with false intentions.

“This will turn our society around for good,” Oshoniyi said. (NAN)

(NAN)