Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Experts lament sector’s decline, call for rejuvenation

By Onoharhigho Omovudidi
19 September 2019   |   1:38 am
Experts in the education sector have condemned the sharp moral and social decline of values in the Nigerian society and advocated immediate rejuvenation of the sector.Provost. Federal College of Education....

Dr Wahab Ademola Azeez, is the new Provost of Federal College of Education (Technical), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos.

Experts in the education sector have condemned the sharp moral and social decline of values in the Nigerian society and advocated immediate rejuvenation of the sector.Provost. Federal College of Education (Technical), Dr. Ademola Azeez, said the goal of education is the tripartite development of knowledge, skills and attitude in the individual.

“Education is the all-round development of individuals physically, emotionally, socially, psychologically, mentally and spiritually. It is a paradox that the more educated or advanced a people is in this clime, the lower their moral standards seem to sink,” Azeez said.

Also speaking, a senior lecturer in the college, Mrs. Margaret Igbinoba said Transparency International; in its global corruption perception index (2018) rated Nigeria as the 144th most corrupt amongst 180 countries surveyed.

Igbinoba lamented that teachers, who are expected to be “paragon of discipline and moral uprightness” are also caught up in the web of unsavoury acts that have permeated the society and its educational system.

“These unsavoury acts in the ivory tower include, examination malpractice, sexual harassment, admission fraud, drug abuse, cultism and certificate forgery, among others.”

In her keynote address titled, “Causes and solutions to moral decadence in Nigerian tertiary institutions: A collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach, chief lecturer in the department of general studies, Dr. Olajumoke Mekiliuwa identified morality as the key index for growth, development, sustenance and stability of human society.

Mekiliuwa said the advent of reality and talent shows, which transform their winners into overnight millionaires, have played a major role for instant gratification in today’s youth.She said inadequate home training, parental neglect, excessive materialism, decline in religious training, and examination malpractice, sexual harassment, indecent dressing, cultism, admission fraud, certificate forgery and cybercrimes among others are causes of moral decadence.

She called on government and its agencies to commence a re-orientation of values governing the country.“Existing national laws and academic regulations should be enforced against crimes such as exam malpractice, sexual harassment, cultism and certificate forgery among others. The proposed bill before Senate on sexual harassment in tertiary institution provisions act, 2016 should be revisited and passed into law, including the issue of false accusation,” she said.

The scholar further stated that institutional management should put in place clearly articulated policies and mechanisms that reflect zero tolerance for reprehensible and unethical acts.

In this article

0 Comments