Angel George
The Chief Executive Officer and Principal, Grange School, Lagos, Graham Scothard, has said that there is a need for the Federal Government to implement policies that will boost the country’s quality of education.
Scothard said that Nigeria was endowed with many talents but paying proper attention to infrastructure, teaching methodology and teachers’ training would help to raise the quality of teaching.
He, however, hinted that education in the country was improving.
The Grange School CEO spoke at the 2017 graduation ceremony of the school in Lagos recently. The event was also used to recognise and reward academic excellence.
He said, “Nigeria’s system of education is a long way behind that of Britain in general terms even though it is gradually improving. There are aspects of learning in Nigeria that are certainly gaining ground in recent years as we can see in Lagos.
“But as long as Nigeria has a system where it isn’t a human right that all children can attend school for free, where the schools they attend are badly built and manned by poorly trained and badly paid teachers, the quality of learning won’t compete favourably.”
According to him, there must be commitment and the political will on the part of authorities to bring about the kind of education that will take the nation to the next level of development.
Scothard said, “Education must rank among the most important priorities and the minister of education, commissioner for education must be regarded almost as important as the executive governor of the state and president.”
Speaking further, the school principal pointed out that there was a need to bring in expatriates skilled in the area of developing education into the country.
He said, “The government needs to bring in people from outside the country to kick-start the programme. Nigeria is not self-sufficient in education yet. They still do need to look at outside to get advice and guidance and take it willingly. But all these things require political will and they require financial backing.”
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