Adeduro urges Nigeria to under-study Indian educational system

CONSEQUENT upon the growth of the Indian economy, which has been linked to the success of its education sector, Chairman of Banquaires–SMS Consultants, Dr. Felix Adeduro, has advised Nigerian government and policy makers to work closely with India in the area of education so as to learn how the country’s education system has impacted on its economy.

Banquaires–SMS Consultants, is a recruiting firm for India-based Amity University. The school is one of the fastest growing universities in the world, which offers industry-based education to its students.

The firm’s chief, who spoke with newsmen recently in Lagos, hinged the growth of the Indian economy to the success of its burgeoning education sector, and therefore stressed the need for Nigeria as a country to adopt the Indian style of education.

According to him, this formed part of the reasons his firm was encouraging prospective Nigerian students, who wish to have access to global standard education to avail themselves of the opportunity.

“At a time in the history of our nation, Nigeria, India and Malaysia were almost at par in terms of development. But today there is a wide gap between Nigeria and these countries. And what actually contributed to the phenomenal growth in these countries is their education system.

We need to learn from the Indian educational system and see how it has impacted on their economy and their society; and then introduce same into our system,” Adeduro stated.

He continued, “Also we need to learn from their mode of operation. For instance, in Nigeria, if I am a lecturer, I am the one to mark my students scripts. But in India, you don’t mark your students scripts.

Your job as a lecturer is to teach, you have no business marking students paper. So there is nothing like ‘sorting’ lecturers or trying to buy marks.

The worst thing a lecturer can do in India is to deny a student access to classroom, which rarely happens. All these brings sanity and orderliness into the system.

” He urged policy makers in the sector to spare a thought in this direction, as that would end up helping the country to provide thorough skilled education for its teeming youth populace.

“It may interest you to know that the highest paid employee in the world is an Indian man who was educated in India. That is the Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Corporation, Satya Nadella, he went to public school in India, not even private school. Today, he earns about N44m per day.

Also, among the top 10 highest people in the world is the Managing Director of Pepsi-Cola, Indra Nooyi. She earns N22m a day as her salary.

“These are people that passed through the Indian education system, and acquired industry-based education and that is why they are impacting the world.

We need to have as many Nigerians as possible to go to this university and learn what they could bring back to Nigeria, and what will make a difference in the way we do things…”

He pointed out that the problems with the Nigerian education system, which are more pronounced at the tertiary level, ranged from infrastructural decay to unnecessary industrial action among others.

On why his firm was partnering the Indian varsity, Adeduro said, “Amity University stands out because it is being run on a not-for-profit basis.

What is paid there is much less than what we pay for secondary school students in Nigeria and the fee is the same for all courses.

“Again, when in Amity University jobs look for you. In their education curriculum, there is nothing that would stop any graduate from getting job.

Employers go to Amity University to recruit. The students don’t seek employment, but they get recruited before graduation. That is the same thing we wish to have in Nigeria, by letting a great number of our students have access to the school, and benefitting from the system for the good of our country.

Managing Director of the firm, Mrs. Perpetua Okeke, who said, “India is known for its innovative and revolutionary ideas in technology,” added that Nigeria needs to learn from her developmental programmes.

Amity University, which operates in 13 countries including China, United States, Dubai, Singapore, Mauritius, Romania, among others, has about eight campuses in India.