The Managing Director, Westminster College, Lagos, Chief Johnson Barovbe, has canvassed the review of the nation’s education structure with a view to reintroducing the Higher School Certificate.
He also decried the emphasis being placed on theoretical education at the expense of practical in some educational institutions.
Speaking at the 11th valedictory service/graduation of the college in Lagos on Wednesday, the administrator urged the federal and state governments to set up education panels to revisit the issue of the 6-3-3-4 system of education, with a view to re-introducing the Higher School Certificate, which is an equivalent of Cambridge Advance Level General Certificate of Education.
He said the re–introduction of HSC, apart from keeping pupils longer in the education system, could reduce unemployment temporarily.
The major gain, according to him, would be quality education that will produce tomorrow’s leaders, who will have bold ideas for solving the problems that the country is facing.
He said, “We need well-educated experts and leaders across many disciplines and to propose big and refined ideas for our big problems.
“It is now obvious that the Nigerian problem is beyond the political class.’’
He explained that the major reasons for the low standard of education and the complaints over poor calibre of graduates from the nation’s universities were the age of university students and inadequate funding of the education sector by both the federal and state governments.
“It is only in Nigeria where you have students of 15 years in the university,” he observed.
Barovbe also noted that lack of practical education contributed to the docility of a lot of Nigerians.
According to him, lack of practical training in schools contributes to the dwindling standard of education, as many products of the school system never had a good understanding of either the subjects or the courses that they were taught in school.
This, he said, had also impacted negatively on the quality of leadership in various strata of the society, as many graduates lack proper understanding of their country and the nitty-gritty of the nation’s everyday politics.
Apart from teaching subjects like Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology, he said, pupils should be thoroughly schooled in politics to enable them to become responsible leaders in future.
He said, “At Westminster, we encompass everything from politics to economy, social to culture and Nigeria to world affairs.’’
Explaining that the success of an educational institution depends on the achieved results of its products, he said the college had successfully carved a niche for itself in moral discipline, academics and leadership.
