By Gbenga Olarinoye, Osogbo

The Vice-Chancellor of Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State, Professor Ekundayo Alao, has declared that the nation’s education system has collapsed following the strike by lecturers of universities and polytechnics in Nigeria.

He also called on the Federal Government to as a matter of urgency, declare a state of emergency in the tertiary education sector as part of efforts to proffer lasting solutions to the perennial crises bedeviling the country’s education.

He made the call at the main campus of the university during the matriculation ceremony of 665 undergraduates for the 2018/2019 academic session.

The VC’s call was against the backdrop of the incessant strike action by members of the ASUU  and ASUP.  Alao said that the strike occasioned by demands for improved welfare of lecturers, regular payment of salaries and allowances, proper funding of public universities and polytechnics among others, had overtime,    paralysed academic activities and accounted for the dwindling standard of education.

“As I speak, no federal university and other public universities are opening their doors to their students for lectures due to the ongoing ASUU and ASUP strikes. Alao who lamented that the country’s education system has collapsed, expressed optimism that if the state of emergency was declared, the period could be used to embark on a long-term blueprint that will  engender a revolution capable of proffering lasting solutions in order to restore stability to the system.

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“It’s unfortunate that the stable education system that we were running smoothly before and the whole world was celebrating us, is no more. The system has collapsed,” he said.

“In those days, Nigeria used to be the frontrunner in education. We used to be a role model in terms of high academic standard and stable academic calendar. But today, we are no more. Our education system has collapsed,” he stressed.

“Out of the 1.6 million candidates that sat for JAMB this year, only 448,000 were admitted by public universities. Is that not ridiculous? That is why our children run to Benin Republic, Ghana and Togo where some universities have only one building and acclaim themselves to be worlds class universities. What kind of education can such universities offer?   This is an insult on the image of Nigeria,” .

“A lot of money being wasted in this country should be channeled into education which is the basis for development”.

“The state of emergency should be declared quickly before the exit of this government so that a committee could sit down and restructure the system from the foundation and find out why our education system is like this. Then recommendations could be made on the way forward”, he added