At National Summit on Tertiary Education, Reps Speaker reiterates ‘the Nigerian people’ as the country’s greatest resource, pledges to collate submissions received and deliberations into a policy action document for implementation
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Tuesday, posited that education is key to ensuring Nigeria’s survival.
The Speaker made the remark at a two-day National Summit on Tertiary Education held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Auditorium in Abuja, where he assured that all submissions received and deliberations will form the basis of a policy action document and implementation framework that would be unveiled shortly after the conclusion of the Summit. He added that a journal of all the submissions would be published as a guide and reference for the future.
“This summit aims to provide an opportunity for all Nigerians and friends of Nigeria to present those ideas for consideration, examination, debate and, eventually, action. As part of this summit, we published a ‘Call for Papers’ requesting scholars, tertiary education administrators, and local and international stakeholders to make submissions on the theme of the summit, “Reimagining Tertiary Education in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Solutions” and other designated sub-themes.
By this morning, we have received over a thousand such submissions, including from outside the country. A Technical Team has been appointed to collate and review these submissions,” the Lagos lawmaker explained.
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Gbajabiamila noted that tertiary qualification of some other kind can be the catalyst that changes the trajectory of an entire family. Gbajabiamila further expressed that education presents hope and confidence while reducing violence and other social vices.
“Our nation’s greatest resource is not the oil that flows through our deltas nor the abundant minerals that lie underground in every corner of our country. Our most incredible resource has always been the Nigerian people.
This immense collection of tongues and tribes, bound together under one flag, striving through adversity and achieving despite every obstacle. As we are gathered here this morning, our cause is more than to seek solutions to the challenges of tertiary education in Nigeria. In fact, we are here today on a mission to save Nigeria. Evidence abounds of the transformations that can happen when ambition and diligence are amplified by access to quality education and training,” he declared.
“By all means, in a perfect world, access to education will be a fundamental benefit afforded to every individual from basic through tertiary. And our learning centres will be majestic citadels of research and innovation, open to all who seek knowledge, regardless of means. But this is not a perfect world.
In this real world, education is a commodity and a quality education even more so. Therefore, the central public policy challenge is the conflict between the competing objectives of access and quality. How do we fund a quality tertiary education without imposing costs that make access to quality education impossible for most people?” he asked.
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