Cleric forsees better nation as don canvasses robust secondary school education

The Minister-in-Charge of Satellite Town Baptist Church, Rev. Kayode Akintunde, charged Nigerians not lost hope on the country, stating a better Nigeria beckons.

In his message, yesterday in Lagos, at the ministry’s Nigeria @ 62 Independence Day Service, entitled, “Expect Divine Visitation” taken from Ruth 1: 1-5, the cleric, while deploring lack of purposeful in the country, submitted: “God will arise and fight bad leaders. Do not lost hope. The God that did it for Bethlehem will also visit and do it for Nigerians.”

He asserted: “If you are benefitting from the anguish of Nigerians, you must repent and restitute.”

Akintunde regretted that the huge resources Nigeria is blessed with are being plundered by the leaders, who should have deployed them for provision of amenities for the betterment of the people.

“Is anybody in charge of the charge of the nation? God will visit us,” he stated.

The clergy added: “Don’t lose hope on Nigeria. Things will be better. Niger will be better. God will visit the country.”

EARLIER, the Anniversary Lecturer, Prof. Oghenekaro Ogbinaka of the Faculty of Art, University of Lagos canvassed an interface between the formal and informal systems to strengthen secondary school education in Nigeria.

The don suggested that vocational centres should be sited around the schools for pupils to learn life skills, thus making them more productive and useful to themselves and the country at large.

He said the existing artisans could be upgraded, making use of what we have on ground.
Ogbinaka noted for instance that where there is a bakery, a secondary can be attached to it, same for the mechanics then later, the products could be fixed in vocational schools to bring to use what they have learnt.

In his lecture, titled, “Expanding the Frontier of Secondary School Education in Nigeria,” the scholar canvassed: “Our school system must promote a viable and robust home economics department whose curriculums are not limited by course outlines designed to make girls and only “girls” good housewives. It should be able to produce great bakers, hoteliers, and owners of eateries from such a nascent and limited background. Consequently, we cannot but advocate and argue for a secondary education system that would have great relevance for the community and persons. An educational system that would be “talent builder” and not “talents quencher.”

One that would add to the existing superstructure and infrastructure of our existing secondary education school system. This way, we shall be proud that we have expanded and extended the frontiers of the secondary education system in Nigeria.”

He continued: “Consequently, we advocate a secondary school+ (PLUS) system. The + (PLUS), if achieved, would shift the ‘boundary or goals’ for an envisaged better secondary school system. Our conclusion is based on our understanding of what a secondary school is and the broader goals of secondary education as outlined by the National Policy on Education (NPE) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) Life Skills for learners, as well as other official positions on the goals of secondary education in Nigeria. All this leads us to conclude that our secondary school system should encourage an interface of stakeholders – government, old students associations, parents, teachers, learners, host communities, etc. at the formal level, and at the informal level, and it should embrace the African apprenticeship system of education of artisan workshops and sports academies with a view to creating a well-rounded educated person from our secondary schools.”

In his background statement, the university teacher had observed: “Schools and educational institutions are set up to achieve set goals that they are assigned by stakeholders in any given society. However, many parents are myopic on what is expected of the secondary school system’s goals for their wards. A good secondary school education is expected to make pupils successful in their future endeavours. By ‘future endeavours’ we mean the post-secondary life of the pupils; infuse pupils with Life Skills and creativity, this is apart from doing well in examinations and getting admitted into tertiary institutions and to make pupils creative and analytical thinkers.”

“We have all it takes to be greater that the United States, but the problem is bad leadership. We people in government, who have no slightest knowledge of leadership.”