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Lack of vocational, technical education bane of development, says don

By Charles Coffie-Gyamfi, Abeokuta
25 October 2019   |   3:00 am
A university lecturer, Prof. Jeremiah Oludele Ojediran, yesterday urged the Federal Government to revive vocational and technical education if the country...

Urges increased funding of sector
A university lecturer, Prof. Jeremiah Oludele Ojediran, yesterday urged the Federal Government to revive vocational and technical education if the country must overcome the various economic challenges confronting her.

Ojediran, Vice-Chancellor of Bells University of Technology, Ota, Ogun State, also condemned the N48 billion allocated for education in 2020 Appropriation Bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly early this month.

According to him, it is regrettable that education had the lowest allocation out of all the sectors, insisting that no serious country that yearns for development would allocate the lowest share of its budget to education.

Ojediran, who spoke at a press conference to herald the university’s 11th convocation ceremony, said that Nigeria’s attitude towards education, especially vocational and technical education, was the bane of the country’s development.

As part of activities marking the ceremony, an activist, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, will deliver the convocation lecture, titled, “Globalisation: Challenges and Impact on the Sustainable Development of Africa” on Thursday, October 31, 2019 while the convocation will hold on Saturday, November 2, 2019 in the school campus.

Ojediran lamented that the education sector had been “bastardised” and called for the overhauling of the sector, saying: “If the country must move forward, we must have a strong will for the development of human resources.

“Investment in human resources in our country is like investing in the entire country and giving education the lowest share in the budget is like going backwards.

“The government must go back and beef up the budget on education because education is paramount. They must do something about the budget. I am totally against the low budget for education and I am sure many of us who know the value of education will agree with me.

“Foundation of our economy is vocational and technical education but unfortunately, the standard of technical education in the country is low.”

“One major problem that this country has is the fact that we have virtually phased out technical colleges. If they still exist, they are very few. Our education sector has been bastardised. Our technical colleges are moribund, there are no equipment in the only few colleges that are remaining.

“Vocational and technical education is our only way out of the current economic crisis in the country. If we must get out of our economic challenges, we must revive our vocational and technical education.”

The university lecturer also implored the Federal Government to come to the aid of private universities, especially in the area of funding, saying that private universities “are making impact in the society, contributing to the socio-economic development of the country but the government is standing aloof and not doing anything to assist private universities.”

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