By Sylvester Thompson
Abuja – Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have appealed to the Federal Government (FG) and stakeholders to help set up a functional education system for the youth that meet up global standard.
They opined that if government could put a mechanism in place to harness youth creativity and implement its robust educational policy, it would go a long way toward curbing youth restiveness.
The FCT residents spoke with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on how to curb youth restiveness on Monday in Abuja to mark the International Youth Day.
Dr Gilbert Ekorinuen, an educationist, said one of the factors responsible for youth restiveness in the country was that ““they have never seen a functional system, from leadership to education.’’
“”The falling standard of education in the country is a major issue that must be jointly tackled by government and stakeholders to secure the future of this country,’’ he said.
Accordingly, he also disclosed that the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is quoted in millions and growing.
“”We need to renew the system by going back to the drawing board in order to get it right.
“”We have young people who are rational and smart but most of them prefer to learn more from the streets than in classrooms due to the falling standard of education,’’ Ekorinuen said.
Mr Hillary Etiene, a Civil Engineer, said the government should take up the responsibility of providing quality education up to the secondary school level.
“The structure and quality of education we have in public schools in this country is below average.
“”We need to change how people learn; government should choose only those who are passionate about education as teachers because we have poor quality of teachers,’’ Etiene said.
In order to boost the morale of young people, he suggested that there should be grants and scholarships with other incentives to make education interesting.
“”Government has the responsibility of providing quality education up to the secondary school level and we have to bring our educational policies up to fit into global standard,” he said.
Dr Freeman Adebisi, a medical practitioner, said youth restiveness was the outcome of a bigger problem which came about as a result of the lack of basic things they did not have.
“We cannot get it wrong with education of the youth because the impact will certainly be felt in future when you’ll come to realisation that there are no competent hands.”
He suggested that government should declare a state of emergency in the education sector in order to redesign and re-engineer the schooling system.
Adebisi added that schooling was not all about preparing for examinations which was one of the reasons some youth hated going to school.
“”We need to re-engineer our policies, there should be capacity building and activities to engage students for them to study, not just exams,’’ he said.
Mr Josiah Orok, a legal practitioner, said although oil and agriculture were very instrumental and the mainstay of the economy, “education is the very key to harness and drive home major achievements.
““The future of a country is tied to the quality of its human resource and parents have an active role to play in shaping the future of their children.
““Government and stakeholders need to join hands ain transforming the country’s educational system to meet global standard,’’ Orok said.
(NAN)