Crumbled value system hurting our education, says Obasanjo

The inconsistency and incoherence, which have mired the country’s education sector, are a fall-out of our warped value system, so says ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo.

And unless the country reorders and strengthens its value system, problems confronting the education sector as well as other sectors will persist.

Speaking at the 18th valedictory and prize-giving day of Good Shepherd Schools, Ota, Ogun State, Obasanjo said once the country gets its priorities right in the education sector, every other sector would subsequently begin to cohere.

Represented by his Chief of Staff, Deacon Victor Durodola, the former president maintained that a strong value system would ensure strong principles that would positively influence activities in all institutions.

He said, “Our value system has changed for the worse and unless we reorder our system and bring it to a path of rectitude, then we cannot positively change the educational system. The education sector is just one sub-set of the system. Once it is overhauled, every other system will fall in place.

“When our value system is reordered; it would enable us to reform ourselves; reform all our weak institutions, and everything will work well. It is because our value system has crumbled that the education system is affected, and so, it is a reflection of what the system has been all over the country.”

He charged students to embrace change by being different from others, adding,  “do not follow the multitude to do evil, be different, be unique, so that we can experience the change that we really need.”

In a paper, entitled “Changing the Nation: An Individual at a Time,” Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Lagos, Prof. ‘Supo Jegede, said there was the need for every individual to embrace change, as it is only by so doing that the nation will achieve a positive change.

He said, “As individuals, when change reaches greater scale, they contribute to population-level changes. The individual impacts are the building blocks of community change, if they do not happen; it is unlikely that a community will improve.”

Director of the school, Dr. Adebayo Oyeyemi, charged the 225 graduating pupils to remain focused and resolute in their respective aspirations.