The first nine years of education; Primary 1-6 and Basic 1-3, have been described as the most important level of education in the Nigerian educational system. A former Minister of Education, Dr. (Mrs.) Oby Ezekwesili said this while delivering a lecture as the Convocation Lecturer during the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State’s 30th convocation ceremony. A total of 113 graduating students bagged Doctor of Philosophy degrees in various fields, 215 bagged masters’ degrees and 16 got postgraduate diplomas.
Dr. Ezekwesili, who said she developed a reform package for education while she was minister, spoke on the topic: ‘Education Systems and Youth Development’. She noted that education is the bedrock on which any nation could build a prosperous future, adding that without ‘access to this level of education at the foundational level, a nation may be heading for disaster by breeding gangs of criminals’. The lecturer advised that the first nine years of the foundational must be made inclusive, qualitative and accessible to all children, irrespective of their parents’ economic or social status, while she stressed that issues in education included needs of special education, non-formal and informal education.
She noted that government had always paid most attention to the tertiary education, which she said caters to about 4 per cent of those pursuing education, while less attention “is given to the foundational education where we have over 70 per cent of students”. Dr. Ezekwesili is also worried at the quality of education being offered at the foundational level, and the quality of teachers, who are employed to teach the children, adding that in Nigeria, children at this level, many at times, the teaching they get is not encouraging, charging the graduating students to explore the technology world, which is the in-thing right now.