The former acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Sarah Alade, has called for more funding for the education sector, saying that education is key to the survival of the country.
Alade, who spoke over the weekend in Abuja at the launching of a book titled: “Leadership and Education Reform in Nigeria”, authored by a retired Executive Director, Transition Company of Nigeria (TCN), Dr. Bulus Danmagaji, also called on the government to prioritise education with the injection of more funds.
She said: “We need quality education in this country to survive. Whatever we are going to do, unless we have that human capital development, we will not get anywhere. At the moment, we need to give education priority by putting more money in the budget for education going by the percentage of GDP.
“We must have safe schools and ensure that every child that is of school age also goes to school if we are going to make progress”.
The author of the 267-page book, Danmagaji remarked that the education sector would continue to experience a mirage until the problem of leadership and education quality were adequately tackled.
Danmagaji, who was also the Human Resource Manager of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), however, noted that the nation’s education sector needs visionary leadership to save it from imminent collapse.
He said: “The corridor of the entire system is in confusion and it is from leadership. How much attention do we give to education and what is the quality of the attention? We must work hard to give birth to effective human capital else we will wake up one day and there will be nobody.
“We need visionary and committed leaders to transform the sector. If one has corrupt leadership, one will have corrupt followers and if the leadership is committed to education, the country’s future and the future of children will be secured”.
Reviewing the book, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), Dr Philip Hayab, said the application of poor administration had impeded the sector, hence the need for a new strategy to correct the errors.
He said the country’s education system needed embodied philosophical ideas that would foster the worth of individual development, adding that the book challenged the way children interact with technology.
