Press Release
In concluding the four-week nationwide advocacy campaign for transformation in Nigeria’s education sector, the Concerned Parents & Educators (CPE) has called for a stakeholder’s summit with a view to providing the platform for discussions on the salient issues raised during the campaign and charting the way forward.
Tagged “Save Education In Nigeria Dialogue”, the dialogue is scheduled to hold on Wednesday 26th February 2020 at Vintage Point Events Center, Acme Road, Ikeja. It is expected to be a gathering of nation builders where participants will go beyond typical education seminar that discusses the problems but focus more on seeking solutions and creating them.
According to the Founder, Concerned Parents & Educators, Mrs. Yinka Ogunde, “This is an epoch-making event hence CPE is quite diverse in its invitation. We have invited School owners, Non-governmental organizations, Trade Organizations, Teachers, Child-Minders, Students Bodies, Parents, Petty traders, Media, Entrepreneurs and Concerned Nigerians. So, we are expecting a very robust and practical kind of discussion.”
Ogunde highlighted the various challenges facing the Education sector nationwide, which includes:
- Poor quality of teachers
- Dilapidated and totally outdated structures
- Low budgetary allocation for education and misuse of available funds
- Effect of drug abuse, examination malpractice, sexual abuse in our schools.
- Poor teaching facilities in our schools?
- Lack of standard curriculum that is relevant for today’s world and that will make the Nigerian child excel in the workplace?
- Increased number of out-of-school children.
- Lack of standards and policies that need to be in place.
She however noted that these problems cannot and will not disappear on their own except we all begin to take ownership and seek for ways of transforming the Sector. This, she said is the essence of the “Save Education In Nigeria” Dialogue.
Speaking further, Ogunde assured that the dialogue will address some of the pertinent questions on the minds of concerned Nigerians. This includes such questions as:
- How do we create a curriculum that serves the need of the society?
- How do we change the attitude of young Nigerians towards organized knowledge as against immediate pecuniary gains?
- How do we fund Education for the huge population we already have in a sustainable way?
- How will our children love to learn (Interactive session with students in primary/secondary/tertiary institution)?
- How do we reposition the teaching profession and the mindset of teachers?
- How do we encourage parents to work hand in hand with their schools to nurture and educate the Nigerian child?
“At the end of the dialogue, a communiqué would be issued and presented through various CPE state chapters to Commissioners of Education across the federation”, said Ogunde.
Concerned Parents & Educators Network (CPE) started four years ago as an online platform with the main objective of bringing together keys stakeholders in the education sector to deliberate on ways they can improve standards in schools, empower teachers with necessary information and skills, support parents, protect the children and generally ensure that we have better outcomes in schools and in the lives of the students.
Today, CPE has grown in leaps and bounds, with 116, 000 members across Nigeria talking about issues that are critical to the development of the education sector and proffering solutions to the multiple challenges inherent there. Interestingly, this initiative has also led to discussions about teachers’ development and birthed another online platform exclusively for teachers’ training and capacity building. Much more, it has also birthed a non-governmental organization that supports indigent children through educational scholarships and concerned Nigerians on ways to proffer solutions to the problems in the education sector.
Aramide Oikelome –