Overhaul Nigeria’s education system, ex-HOS, Oladapo, tasks Tinubu

A former Head of Service of the Federation, Professor Afolabi Oladapo, has asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take a holistic approach to overhaul the education system in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning as well as production of graduates with the right skills needed to drive the nation’s economy.

He particularly noted that some universities in Nigeria have very poor ratings, saying this was one of the reasons why a lot of Nigerians are going abroad for schooling.

Oladapo spoke during the weekend in Abuja while speaking with newsmen at the graduation ceremony of the Class of 2023, KIA Lakeside Academy, Abuja.

He said he hoped it would be of interest to the new administration of President Tinubu to overhaul the entire education sector with particular focus on university systems which are expected to produce high level manpower needs of the nation.

The former Head of Service, who is also the Chairman Board of KIA Lakeside Academy, said the school was established in 2008, noting that the school has the best teachers that give dedicated attention to students.

He revealed that from the results of the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), the lowest score by candidates from the school was 272 points.

“You can see from the JAMB results, the lowest number was 272, that shows the quality of the school. I will say we are proud of the school, we are proud of the input,” he said.

Oladapo, however, said the challenge was that when such students with excellent backgrounds graduate, all they think is to find a way of going abroad where they think they could have a more stable academic calendar and good quality of university education.

He, therefore, called on the federal government to invest more energy and resources in universities, especially public universities so as to make their students globally competitive.

He said: “When you go to a good quality secondary school and you have a very poor quality university, you won’t go there. This is why you have many students that are going “Japa” (schooling abroad). It is because they’re looking for good quality. Sometimes they miss it, because it’s the name of the country that they go for, they don’t know what is inside. Some of our universities are better than some of the ones they go to abroad.

“So, we need to do some real work. I hope this new government will pay attention to tertiary institutions, so that the good universities will have a demand for good secondary school products.

“In a way, government will take a holistic way to review the way we are implementing our education  policy, and review the education policy in a way that we have good quality education, good quality skill set that will serve our labour,” Oladapo said.

While speaking on taxation of schools, Oladapo noted that new schools should be given tax holiday, while schools that have been in existence for a reasonable number of years should pay tax.

According to him, “New schools should be given tax holidays but when your school is mature to pay tax, you should pay appropriately. But by the time you are producing really good quality students, you can use the performance of the students to give tax rebates”.

Earlier, the School Principal, Mr. William Pope, said he was overwhelmed because the school that started in a little way has now become big.

He said while the school has been through ups and downs, the management has been able to build the core values of the school.

The Keynote Speaker, Mr. Tope Fashedemi, said while the graduands have spent a lot of time in the classrooms, learning mathematics, economics, and languages of the West, the most important lessons they have learnt would not be from the textbooks but from their interactions with people.

He added: “During this period of your stay in school, you would have experienced upside and the downside, you would have learned perseverance, you would have succeeded in some tasks, you would have failed in other tasks, not winning targets. You must have learned what it means to fall, to fail and to rise again to give it another shot.

“These are all important lessons that will serve you well in your journey into adulthood. As you put your head in this life journey, never forget all the foundational lessons that you had during this stage of your life.”