By Richard Udofia

A community in Ekiti State has launched a platform to restore values, virtues and the old spirit into education.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olurotimi Ojo, at the IgboleEkiti Educational Link Forum, held under the theme, ‘Restoring Values, Virtues and Ekiti Spirit into Education’, said  the programme was a platform where academic icons gathered to share their wealth of experience and give insights to life issues with the aim of adding values and promoting virtues to the younger generation.

Ojo advised administrators in the sector to reward excellence always, noting that motivation and reward of excellence should cut across all the stakeholders in the sector.

He promised to reward the best teacher at Ojo Ugbole High School, best student in literary clubs with N50,000 each and an undisclosed amount for the best parent in the community.

One of the speakers at the event, Chief Anthony Ashaolu, stated: “The Ekiti spirit of old was a fighting spirit. The spirit made students from the state an object of envy and admiration in all institutions of learning throughout the world as they would always excel in any field of academic pursuit you found them. Failure at any level was a taboo”.

While describing the platform as a unique one that has no precedent in Nigeria, Professor Kolawole Ojo of the Federal University of Agriculture, said  it is not enough to continue to investing in physical infrastructures alone because the true propeller of success in the glorious generation lied in the value system.

An educational consultant, Mr. Oluwagbohunmi   Aduralere, said that, the state is reputed to have the highest density of scholars in Nigeria but today, the story has changed, as students now take to vices in a bid to make it quick in life.

“The fundamental problem that is confronting education sector in the state today is that; our students have lost touch with the value of excellence, virtue of commitment and the spirit of excellence that define us unique people”, Aduralere stated.

He also argued that, these social currents are the latent factors that helped the likes of Ojo Ugbole, the first professor of geo-physics in Africa; Prof. Olubumo, the first professor of mathematics in Nigeria and others to reach the pinnacles of their careers despite the fact that they all studied under harsh and dehumanising conditions.