By DAYO ADESULU
It has been discovered over-time that not too many people aspiring for public offices have plans and know exactly what to do when they assume office as most aspirants start thinking of what to do as soon as they get there. May be that explains reasons why most public office holders perform below average.

“If I were made a Minister of Education,” said Mrs Kehinde Phillips, Executive Director, Edgewood College, Lekki Phase1, “I will make Nigeria’s education sector  21st Century-compliant.

To accomplish this, she stated that she will go into Information Technology which will enhance free flow of knowledge globally as the world is now a global village.

*Mrs Kehinde Phillips

Mrs Phillips noted that parents send their children overseas for studies because the facilities for global education are not on ground, adding “the availability of  information technology in our education system will enable our students and lecturers consult overseas to get ideas without necessarily travelling abroad.”

Speaking at a media parley, she pointed out that our education curriculum is obsolete, urging the Federal Government to do something urgently about it in order to meet international standards. The lawyer-turned educationist commended the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), for their recent demands from the Federal Government saying: “It is for the betterment of the sector.

I like what ASUU is doing, they are clamouring for better facilities and better funding. Funding of the education sector cannot be over- emphasised,” she said.  According to her, you can rarely find professional teachers anymore because teachers are not well paid.

On less privileged students in the society, Mrs Phillips said, “if the privileged parents do not positively change the indigent children, they will negatively affect their children in all ramifications.” She urged individuals and corporate organisations to rise up to the task.

Bringing Edgewood College to the fore, she stated that the school  provides scholarships for brilliant but indigent pupils on full or partial basis who are seeking support from individuals and organisations to offer spaces to children that fall in that category.

Phillips said: “To bridge the gap, we give scholarships out to indigent children. At any given time we have pupils on full or partial scholarships. If you don’t train indigent children, they come out and affect your own children negatively.  It pays you to have few indigent children on the streets.”

While other school proprietors are concentrating on nursery and primary, she reiterated her commitment and vision to secondary and advance level students. According to her, this stage is important in the lives of the youths adding that if attention is not given to them at this stage, they become frustrated in no time.