A non-governmental organisation, One Youth Global, has expressed concern about the deteriorating state of federal and state-owned primary and secondary schools in the country, urging the President, state governors, and relevant stakeholders to intensify advocacy for educational development nationwide.

In a chat with newsmen shortly after the grand finale of the ‘Spark Nation’ debate and quiz competition in Abakaliki, the President of the Organisation, Mr Uchechukwu Agbo, insisted that situations of our public schools are not encouraging adding that if urgent steps are not taken to reposition our school system, the future of our country may be doom.

He mentioned some of the problems facing public schools, such as a shortage of manpower, dilapidated structures, and a lack of modern learning equipment, among others. He noted that the group’s initiative is to support and provide a platform for students to showcase their academic abilities and build confidence.

The group called on authorities to take bold steps in developing the sector and also demonstrate a commitment to tackling the over 20 million children who are out of school, stating that it is essential to save the country’s battered school system.

He noted that the national debate and quiz competition was organised in partnership with Benjamin Voth, a professor of Rhetoric at Southern Methodist University and a Member of Board of Directors and Lead Debate Instructor at One Youth Global.

He hinted that the selection of participants for the debate and quiz competition involves schools across states in the country, noting that the winners for the debate and quiz competition have been given N1 million each and an opportunity to travel to California, USA.

He stated that schools from Lagos, Adamawa, Enugu, Imo, Rivers states, among others, participated in the competition, adding that over two hundred and fifty students selected from various secondary schools in the country participated in the Quiz and debate competition.

Speaking at the Boot Camp, Director of the Spark Nation debate and quiz competition, Mr Samson Amulu, said the initiative was aimed at fostering critical thinking, public speaking, and leadership skills among secondary school students in Ebonyi and Nigeria at large.

Amulu maintained that the programme will be expanded to include more schools across the country. He said the seven-day camp programme, which started on June 15, saw them visiting communities in the 13 local government areas of Ebonyi.

His words, “We discovered that most of the students are no longer interested in education, some of them even have this slogan, they say ‘Education is a scam’, maybe because of what they are seeing.

“The state of our school children is worrisome. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), about 20 million children are out of school in Nigeria.

“Teachers and instructors in various schools in Nigeria should be well remunerated to spur them, increase their efforts and encourage them to bring in their ingenuity in the training of the pupils.

“Many of them are graduates and they don’t have any job, which shows an indictment on the side of the government, maybe because of government policies, bad economy, and so many other factors.

“Apart from this, teachers are not well taken care of, so they don’t deliver quality education, and as such, the standard of education in Nigeria is going down, down.”

The debate was won by Akin Oluwa Olajolo (SS1) from Wellspring College, Lagos, with 85 points, followed by Michelle Emeka-Nwuke, CSMT, Abakaliki, with 82 points, and two others.

The winners were each awarded one million naira for scholarships to study at any university of their choice in the country.