NANS ZONE C CALLS ON KWARA STATE GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE STATE OF EMERGENCY ON EDUCATION

THE LEADERSHIP OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN STUDENTS (NANS) ZONE C CALLS ON KWARA STATE GOVERNMENT TO DECLARE STATE OF EMERGENCY ON EDUCATION

Press release

Protocols

It is an axiomatic fact that education is the soul of a nation and a bedrock of development as well as the key to its secured future but it is a well-known fact that Nigeria's education in a holistic view is regretfully deteriorating. This ugly state of the country's education has been attributed over time to a number of factors including underfunding, low-quality teaching personnel, poor infrastructure, poverty of curriculum and absence of dedicated practitioners. From primary through secondary to the tertiary level, the rot is mind-boggling. It is a decline, which must be arrested if Nigeria's future would not be jeopardised.
A visit to a handful of some public schools in both rural and urban areas in Kwara State surely leaves many questions in your mind. One would ponder: are these really schools or abandoned historical ruins? The level of infrastructural dilapidation is so appalling, the quality of learning is pitiable, and of course, the standard of education offered is disgraceful. In the end, it is the poor and average Nigerians, who not being able to afford exorbitant fees of private schools, are left with the inevitable option of painfully allowing their children to attend these fallen public schools. However, poor standard of education in Nigeria public schools is caused by lack of motivation in the sector, inadequate facilities, and poor management.
Hence, there are few and unqualified teachers, frequent going on strike and deterioration of facilities, and poor learning process.
Lecturers are now victims of poor standard of education. They are greatly punished in the endurance of poor salary structure and incentives, and many have lost the strong appetite and joy to teach, nurture, and effectively pass on knowledge to students. Also, there is total absence of motivation, and among all the sectors in the country, education is neglected most. For any society to develop there must be education. In fact, education is the backbone of all the developed nations of the world. From this point of view, one can conclude that teachers are the most important set of people in any society.
However, there is absolutely no doubt that the standard of education in any country plays a vital role in determining the class of individuals that nation produces as its citizens who would represent them locally and internationally. kwara State’s falling educational standard indicates grave dangers for the supposed leaders of tomorrow. Education as we all know holds the key to the future. The spiritual and material development of any nation depends, to a very large extent, on the quality of its educational system. Therefore, we must come together to save education in the public interest as quickly as possible.

In Kwara State Polytechnic, for example, there are series of vital issues which have been paid little or no attention to. The dilapidated conditions of the IOT hall in the school is so saddening and regrettable because at this point in time, academic events which are supposed to hold in this Hall are either cancelled, suspended or moved to another venues outside the school premises. This myriad has tended to uphold lots of technological and scientific constraints for the students who have paid a lot for research programmes, inventions and mass production of invented products.
Also, the school management has ordered students to evacuate school hostel due to the proposed renovation of the halls of residence. To some extent, this excuse is reasonable enough considering the bedraggled conditions of the hostels. But up till this moment nothing has evidently been done. This, however has a lot of implications on the academic performance of the students. Securing an affordable accommodation off campus is one tedious task on its own, zeroing it down to the abilities to meet up with early morning classes, especially for those coming from far distance.
Meanwhile, there are numerous abandoned projects in the school, which if prioritising its earnest completions would have remarkably improved the infrastructural developments of the school. There are unused plots of lands which the school could properly invested on through scintillating designs and drafting of resolute plan susceptible to mesmerize the attentions of private investors to construct new hostels on campus so that transportation issues would be half-solved and students who secured allocations would have the opportunity to various social amenities that could ginger such student to roll up his or her sleeves and pursuit academic excellence.
The only school plants own by the school management  in Kwara State College of Education Oro, which is the school's multipurpose hall has closed down since 2016 due to its decaying nature. Also reportedly, there is no toilet in the school for student. We all know the implications of these problems. We could not blame the school management because they lack proper funding. As a matter of fact, the school is going through a lot of academic difficulties, because lecturers are owned backlogs of salaries, the school environment is also not sincerely enabling enough for students.

Issues bedeviling Kwara State College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies, apart from the fact that the Student Union building has collapsed, the running of the school is lacking the required ingredients that would help in preparing the students for any academic challenges within and ouside the school. The lecturers recently went on strike because of the school's inabilities to settle their outstanding salaries, arrears etc.

In Kwara State College of Nursing Oke-Ode, the school reportedly has only three (3) structures since its establishment, others are still under construction.
For the past six months, no light in the whole Oke-Ode community, there is gross darkness in the environ.
While our so call government are celebrating that they have allotted the dividend of democracy to all sectors.

Kwara State College of education Ilorin, the tarred road leading to the school is bad. At times, there is no water in the school hostel. Sometimes, there is irregular supplications.

However, general issues affecting all the tertiary institutions are:
* None of the student unions own a student union bus.
* No standard Information communication Technology centre in all the tertiary institutions in the state.
* Poor funding of tertiary institutions across the state by the government.

Tertiary education in Kwara State is bisected with myriads of problems.
These includes; poor funding and thus poor educational infrastructures, inadequate classrooms, teaching aids (projectors, Computers, Laboratories and libraries), paucity of quality teachers and poor / polluted learning environment. In addition to these inadequacies, our school system is plagued with numerous social vices such as examination malpractices, cultism, hooliganism and corruption. For meaningful development to take place in the educational sector; the government need to re-address the issue of funding.

In conclusion, the state government should declare a state of emergency on education sector till when the anomalies are rectified to make the sector a prestigious one as it is expected to be.

Signed:
*Adebayo Kayode*
*NANS Zone C*
*Public Relations officer