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Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode (middle), his deputy, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule (2nd left), Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello (2nd right), the Head of Service, Mrs. Folashade Jaji (left) and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Mr. John Oluseyi Coker (right) during the Governor's meeting with petrol tanker drivers, other stakeholders' associations and security agencies on the recent tanker explosion incidents in the State at the Conference Room, Lagos House, Ikeja on Monday, June 8, 2015.

(Opinion) Adebule and Lagos’ education sector

Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule (2nd right), member of the State House of Assembly representing Ikeja Constituency I, Hon. Folajimi Lai-Mohammed (right), Head of Service, Mrs. Folashade Jaji (2nd left) and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Wealth Creation & Employment, Mrs. Nike Oduwole (left) during the 55th Independence Anniversary of Nigeria at the Police College ground, Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday, October 01, 2015.
Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Oluranti Adebule (2nd right), member of the State House of Assembly representing Ikeja Constituency I, Hon. Folajimi Lai-Mohammed (right), Head of Service, Mrs. Folashade Jaji (2nd left) and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Wealth Creation & Employment, Mrs. Nike Oduwole (left) duringa recent event in the state

AKEEM ODUSINA

Education has been widely described as the bedrock of national advancement and an engine room for the manpower development of any nation. It is a system of formal teaching and learning as conducted through schools and other institutions.

Every society must strive to achieve quality education because an educated society could easily translate into a prosperous society. This is why it is often said that no society can attain any meaningful growth beyond its level of education.

Education has been defined by several people from different perspectives. For instance, Professor James Majasan perceives it “as the art of learning” while English mathematician and philosopher, Alfred Whitehead, sees it as “the acquisition and the utilization of knowledge. To George Washington Carver, ‘’education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom”. Late South African President, Nelson Mandela, describes it as a “platform that offers the child of a peasant farmer the opportunity to rub shoulders with the child of a wealthy and influential gold and diamond merchant”. J

udging from all these definitions, education can be seen as a pivot on which human growth largely depends.

In Nigeria, ignorance, poverty and strife (the real axis of evil) are not inevitable in any part of the society. Each of them has its root in the failure of all tiers of governments to sufficiently invest in education. It is this failure to accord education a pride of place that has partly led to the emergence of strife and insurgency in our society.

The early history of Nigeria runs parallel to the history of Nigerian education, because our founding fathers knew that not much could be achieved without education and they consequently gave prominent attention to it. They had the foresight to realize that desired high quality workforce, without which national development is impossible, could only be guaranteed by investing in education.

Subsequent leaders in the country have paid varied degrees of attention to education depending on their vision and focus. In the current political dispensation, Lagos State has been in the forefront of promoting qualitative education. The State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, no doubt, understands the power of education in building a thriving society. Having graduated at a young age of 21, in addition to earning a Master’s degree and becoming a Chartered Accountant at 24, Ambode vision is to use education as a weapon for all round empowerment of the younger ones. Achieving this, however, involves putting the right people at the leadership of the education ministry.

Like President Muhammadu Buhari, Ambode had painstakingly chosen his cabinet to ensure that the right people are selected to man the appropriate portfolio. This is hinged on the well accepted norm that good leadership is required to properly drive human and material resources to attain specified goals.

It is based on this model that Governor Ambode thought it expedient to put a well grounded academic, Dr Oluranti Adebule, the State’s Deputy Governor, at the helm of the education ministry in the State.

A committed and avowed educationist, Adebule’s steadfast affection for impartation of knowledge has seen her dedicate her entire working career to the teaching profession. Perhaps her unalloyed love for teaching is budded in her first contact with the profession as a classroom teacher during her National Youth Service in, Bauchi, Bauchi State from 1994 to 1995. She, thereafter, began her teaching career in 1995 with the Lagos State College of Primary Education (LACOPED), Noforija, Epe, as a Lecturer in the Department of Islamic Studies.

In June 2005, she joined Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, as a Lecturer in the Department of Curriculum Studies, Language Arts and Social Sciences, Faculty of Education. While in LASU, Adebule served at various time as member of the committees on Establishment of LASU International Secondary School, Faculty of Education Teaching Practice Committee, Faculty of Education 9th Conference on Education, LASU Staff School Monitoring Committee , LASU Sandwich Degree Programme, Osun State College of Education, Ilesha Campus among several others.

A go-getter with a knack for hard work, Adebule’s coming to the Lagos State Ministry of Education definitely signifies the dawn of a new era for the education sector in the State. While resuming work at the ministry, Adebule did not mince words in telling the staff at the ministry that it is not going to be business as usual. In a fashion akin to reading the riot act, she said: “We are going to work as a team because I am a team player. The caveat, however, is that I will not tolerate any form of indolence.

The work to be done is so huge that everyone must be ready to give his/her all. This is the only way forward”. Being a passionate educationist, Adebule is already working in the direction of reviewing the State’s education policy with a view to making the required amendments that would positively impact on the status of education in the State.

One critical passion of Adebule in the education sector is the all round improvement of public schools’ teachers in the State. It is her conviction that teachers hold the key to the future since they help to mould future leaders. They don’t just teach, they are critical personalities who nurture the young folks to mature, to understand the world and to understand themselves. The education of a child involves a total development of personality and this means that the human element of improvement is essential. This is something that can only be done by the teacher. In the words of famous rabbi and scholar of Judaism, Jonathan Sacks: “When teachers open our eyes to the world. They give us curiosity and confidence. They teach us to ask questions. They connect us to our past and future”.

It is, therefore, Adebule’s strong conviction that for any meaningful improvement to take place in the education sector, the lots of teachers must be concertedly addressed. Towards this end, she revealed that the Ambode administration plans to make huge investment in this direction since the quality of education depends, to a large extent, on the quality of available teachers and administrators.

Consequently, plans are in top gear to ensure the training and retraining of teachers at both local and international platforms to enhance their proficiency as well as offer them the opportunity to be at par with their counterparts in other civilized climes. Additionally, a reward system that honours hardwork and excellence is to be put in place to encourage healthy competition among public schools teachers in the State. It is, however, important that teachers, particularly those in the State’s public schools, continue to uphold the integrity and dignity of the teaching profession. A situation where teachers get involved in unimaginable acts capable of denting the image of the profession is, to say the least, despicable. The teaching profession, the world over, is a noble vocation. Ours must not be an exception. A nation could cope with half –baked engineers or lawyers. But, no nation, desirous of making meaningful progress, could survive with a mediocre teaching workforce.

 

Odusina writes from Alausa, Ikeja.

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