By Adeola Ogunlade
The need to place a premium on education standardization, teacher remuneration, curriculum upgrading, and deliberate training of individuals on problem-solving skills beyond just certification are imperative in our quest to prepare today’s youth for effective and innovative leadership in Nigeria.
The Group Head, Finance at Pan Ocean Oil Corporation, Dr. Oluseyi Oladapo said this at the Annual Speaker’s conference and Awards of Excellence organised by Speak Africa International Center for Human Development held recently in Lagos.
Tagged: Education: the pathway to innovative leadership in Africa. It brought together industry players, government representatives, educationists, teachers, and students, among others.
According to him, the educational sector is plagued with inadequate e funding to ineffective management and administration, poor support for teachers to degradation and obsolescence of instruction materials and facilities.
“All these and many more are the challenges we need to find lasting solutions to collectively as a people to save the future of the next generation, especially in the area of leadership,” he said.
“Our Education system has been buffeted with many untold woes clogging the flow of innovation in many people who are rising to positions of leadership. This also has grossly resulted in performance below our potential as a people”.
He added the subject of education in all forms and shades across all fields requires us to renew our minds by learning, and relearning the factors that pertain to challenges and solutions in Africa.
He noted education being is the transmission of values and accumulated knowledge is imperative for the growth and development of man and other resources available in society.
“When provided in a quality manner and required standard, it helps to refine our minds, challenge our thinking and spur us to be creative enough and compete favorably with other progressing societies across the globe”.
“Therefore, it’s high time we prioritized having quality education even beyond the walls of the classroom, to decimate right morals, modeling integrity in our society, and enlightening the upcoming generation especially, on the path to trend toward the great future we desire”, he said.
Earlier in her welcome address, A Board Member of Speak Africa International Center for Human Development (SAICENTRE), Barrister Ene Unobe said that the programme was borne out of the need to interrogate and proffer solution to the leadership crisis in Africa as no one can tell the African story as we do.
She traced the leadership crises in Africa to the backwardness in education which foster backward and inept leaders which according to her needs to look into for Africa to maximize its abundant potential and possibilities
Also, speaking at the event, the Executive Director of Speak Africa International, Mr. Marc Chuks Nwadioha said the centre is poised toward good governance, growth, and sustainability not just in Nigeria but Africa as a continent.
He said the centre is ready for a round table discussion with government agencies and concerned individuals in order to provide solutions to the various challenges faced in our educational system’.