Ezekwesili calls for improve supply of power, training of teachers in public schools
NAN-HE-21
Schools
By Kingsley Okoye
Abuja, June 13,2017(NAN) The former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, has called for an improved electricity supply, provision of other infrastructure investment on training of teachers in public schools in the country.
She said the provision of energy in schools, investment on training of public school teachers would help improve the quality of education in the country.
Ezekwesili made the call at the the 9th Wole Soyinka Media Lecture Series in Abuja on Thursday.
The theme of the lecture “Light up ,Light In: Interrogating the nexus between electricity and basic education in Nigeria“, was designed to discuss issues on electricity supply in public schools.
She said that more than 90 million African children were studying without electricity in their school systems.
She said that it was the duty of the schools, as electricity consumers, to demand the provision of necessary infrastructure like electricity from the service providers.
“Because for public schools, some of these electricity companies will ignore them because nobody is raising an issue,“she said.
According to her, the availability of power is an important factor in the quantity and quality of studies that children will receive.
This she said, would help them improve in their social and economic mobility in life.
Ezekwesili said that there was the need to know the state of infrastructure of public schools, giving the failing public schools system which had most children from poor background.
She said that the public school system that were poorly facilitated through infrastructure like energy, would only confine the children to permanent life of inter -generational poverty.
She said that it was necessary to break the vicious circle of poverty; this she said, could also be done by providing required resources for basic education.
According to her, research had indicated that the quality of education is determined by the quality of teachers in the class room .
She said better quality teachers could also be retained when the school has quality power supply in the classess.
She said that it was important to invest on teachers in the class room, noting that the quality of teachers in the class room would ultimately affect the quality of the students .
“seventy per cent of the learning outcomes of the children will be determined by the quality of the teachers in the class room.“
She called for an integrated development process involving all stakeholders to influence the location of schools where it would be possible to acquire all the necessary facilities required for effective running of public schools.
Prof. Olabisi Obadofin of the Lagos State University (LASU) said that the non availability of electricity supply in most public schools in the country was negatively affecting standard of education.
“ Without regular electricity supply in our basic schools, subjects that need electricity for effective learning will be hindered, most especially science related subjects.
“It reduces teaching and resource materials, without electricity, teachers will not be able to connect to the internet to search for new activities and materials that will be helpful to the students online.
“Lack of electricity makes school work complicated for staff and school administrators and keeping students and teachers to record manually instead of on the computer.”
She said that the electricity challenge in the country was capable of discouraging teachers from working in the rural areas .
Obadofin said that the energy poverty in schools was also affecting the capacity of many students to compete with other students in the advanced world especially in technological advancement.
She said it was important for government, stakeholders in the education and power sector to implement policies to ensure stable electricity supply, especially in the rural areas.
She said it would help improve basic education in the primary and secondary schools.
The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education (UBE), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, said the need to provide electricity within the learning environment could not be overemphasized.
Bobboyi said it was necessary for all stakeholders to discuss and proffer solutions on how best to solve the challenges in the educational sector and other sectors.
He said it was also germane to formulate and implement medium term strategic plans to archive quality basic education in the country.
The UBE boss said it was important for government to make a law prohibiting the non participation of teachers who did not have the right qualification to teach in the education sector.
This he said,would help promote quality of teachers in the primary and secondary schools.
He said it was also important to monitor the utilisation of funds allocated for UBE programme.
He called on the state governments to support the UBE in the implementation of its programmes in their states by providing counterpart funding on UBE programmes.(NAN)
KC/IA
Edited by Idris Abdulrahman