.. claim on standard of education alarmist
By Olawale Lamina
The Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Dr. Peter Gregory Obi has come under fire for describing the current state of education in the country as deteriorating, just as The Tinubu Media Volunteers describe his remarks over the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Boar JAMB as nothing but a misplaced apprehension
According to the group, Mr. Obi had anchored his erroneous position on the recently released UTME results by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.
But TMV, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Chukwudi Enekwechi, argued that the former Anambra State governor’s apprehension was misplaced and therefore, wrong.
It said: “We want to use this medium to put the record straight by stating that contrary to Peter Obi’s position, President Bola Tinubu’s administration had taken several measures to enhance the educational development of the country and that so far he has performed well.
“President Tinubu had, in a deliberate move to improve the standard of education, improved the capacity of workers in the health sector, ensuring the enrollment of student nurses for training from a paltry 28,000 two years ago to 115,000 students currently.
“This enrollment is in line with the federal government’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medical Sciences policy, which was aimed at raising standards of education in these essential fields of study
“The implication of this policy is that human capital development is at the centre of the Tinubu administration’s deliberate attempt to improve the capacity of Nigerians in various sectors of the economy. And only recently, N110 billion was disbursed to 18 medical schools spread across the 6 geopolitical zones as part of a 5-year investment plan of N1.5 trillion for the upgrade of infrastructure and training of a new generation of medical professionals.
“Furthermore, the rollout of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) by the administration is a testament to its commitment towards supporting educational development in Nigeria.
“It should be noted that so far, NELFUND has paved the way for thousands of students to access the loans for their educational development. This is unprecedented and proactive on the part of the Federal government to make education stress-free for Nigerian students.
“We can therefore conveniently assert that no previous government has paid attention to the education of our youths like the present administration.
“We therefore completely dispel any concerns that Mr Peter Obi may harbour on his alleged deteriorating education standard in the country, and stand to say that there are several policies in place to ensure the continued development of the education sector under the Tinubu administration.”
The group insisted that there are too many programmes and initiatives introduced by the Tinubu administration to dispel Obi’s alarmist claim of underinvestment in the education sector.
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