By Princess Simon (Bureau Chief North Central, in Minna)
Experts have warned that except something is done urgently, Nigeria’s education system will continue to be corrupted by bad influences that are impacting negatively on Nigeria’s good cultural values and tradition on the present-day youths and the generation after them.
The experts believe that Nigeria’s education sector is suffering today due to under-funding which has made it impossible for education experts to acquire relevant study materials and books to fortify the libraries for student’s use thereby exposing them to the bad sites on social media.
Chairperson, Nigeria Libraries Association (NLA), Niger state branch, Hajiya Fatimah Jibril Abduldayan, disclosed this in an interview shortly after the opening of the 2nd Workshop in the series titled; ‘Research and Proposal Writing for Grants and Academic Publications’ for members which took place at, Newgate College of Health Technology, Minna on Wednesday.
"Students now rely on the internet and social media more than academic journals", adding that, “Poor funding and lack of monitoring on how the funds were being utilized has made it almost impossible to procure the kind of books or materials needed to stock the libraries”.
Fatimah Abduldayan argued that, unless something is done, the under-graduates of today and the next generation may have to contend between expected global education standards and what is readily available but will possibly have negative consequences on them.
Due to the lack of or inadequate relevant materials in libraries, Fatimah said, researchers including students depend on Facebook and related internet sites, and in the process, a good number of them get derailed and end up in dangerous sites that cause more harm to their academic pursuits.
"Education is poorly funded and most times when monies are released they are hardly monitored to ensure accountability, these and many more accounts for why libraries have become mere structures lacking basic academic materials for students", she said.
Other challenges militating against the sector, she said, included; the high cost of data which needed to be subsidized; ICT-related materials, and academic journals and therefore called for a review of national policy in line with present-day education realities.
Nigeria in over sixty years existence should have been able to formulate an education policy that will not depend largely on western or imported culture and tradition but more on the formulation of an indigenous police framework for the growth and development of the country.
In a paper titled, ‘Grants Writing and Academic Publications’, the Dean School of Science and Technology Education, Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Prof. A. I. Gambari encouraged members of NLA in the state to avail themselves of opportunities for professional growth and development. NNL.
