The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, has commended the governors of the South East states for giving priority to education in spite of the economic challenges.
Kukah made the commendation at Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra on Thursday while delivering its 17th convocation lecture.
Kukah, who was represented by Prof. Peter Tanko, spoke on the topic “Teaching the Teacher: Contemporary challenges and prospects of teacher education in Nigeria.”
He decried the poor budget allocation to education at the federal level, noting that the country could not think of meaningful development without allocating at least 23 per cent of its budget to education.
Kukah also urged northern leaders to pay more attention to the education sector, stressing that lack of basic infrastructure had dislocated functional education in the country.
The cleric wondered why children in the north who were sent to school to acquire education would be withdrawn to the Emir’s palace to convert to Islam.
“Here, your governors are doing well, even though their budget for education is less than the recommended minimum.
“We urge you and your governors to continue to give education priority attention, as it is the only way to build the society,” Kukah said.
The cleric attributed the challenges facing teacher education in the country to poor policy implementation, poor condition of service, brain drain syndrome, quality assurance and internal efficiency issues.
Other challenges are insufficient knowledge and use of information and communication technology and lack of professionalism in teaching, he said.
“The senseless politicisation of education at all levels, the gross neglect of education in the allocation of funds and shabby treatment of teachers of all cadre have combined to rob education and the teaching profession of their pride.
“We have so destroyed the school system and the teaching profession that the remnants of Nigerian teachers are largely a bunch of disgruntled, disillusioned, frustrated and depressed professionals.
“Lacking any motivation or encouragement, their output in terms of teaching, research and publication is understandably low.
“The cumulative result of all these is that we are producing graduates of secondary schools, polytechnics and universities who cannot compete on equal terms with their counterparts trained elsewhere.
“More painfully, education is gradually losing its pride of place in the Nigerian society,” he said.
In a remark, the Provost of the college, Dr Ego Uzezie, who commended Kukah for the lecture, said the college would continue to provide quality training and discipline of its students.
