The Associate Professor in the Department of Social Works, University of Calabar, Dr Grace Etuk has alleged that Nigerian leaders created the decay and fall in the standard of education in the country.
She spoke as a guest lecturer during the Second Foundation Day of Comrade Effanga Ita Scholarship Foundation, which had the theme “The Decay in Public Schools, Raising a Cry for the Next Generation.”
She maintained that the nonchalant attitude of leaders to education has given birth to deplorable infrastructure in public schools and including poor remuneration for teachers.
Etuk said the leaders are delighted in taking their children elsewhere, where there is a conducive atmosphere for them to study.
She maintained that Nigeria’s educational challenges will remain until the children of the leaders also attend public schools and they pay attention to educational issues and infrastructure.
“In the past, Nigerians generally relied on public schools to meet the educational needs of their wards but today the public schools have fallen from grace to grass and there is massive patronage of private schools.
“There is also the issue of perennial strikes and the public schools being turned into a mini-market where teachers sell wares to augment their meagre salaries,” she said.
She posited that the solution to the decay in education was bringing in the right leadership to revamp the sector.
She called on Nigerians to participate in the development of their society and emulate good educational initiatives.