Inculcate Inclusive Education For National Development — ABU Alumnus

Kayode Ajiga, the Chairman Steering Committee of Accounting Class of ’97, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria has reiterated the importance of inclusive education in the nation’s educational system for sustainable national development and social cohesion.

Ajiga said this at the 25th anniversary and reunion of the Alumni Association in Abuja.

He said that allowing inclusive education in the school curriculum would encourage students with special needs to study with their peers in the same academic environment.

”Education as we all know is the key to national development, hence the need for an inclusive, quality, and equitable education for every Nigerian child regardless of social status, race, gender, religion, and physical ability.

”Quality and inclusive education is a precursor to economic mobility, growth, and development of any nation and sadly, we are far from this ideal.

”The government at all levels must look at this area critically to make sure that every Nigerian child has quality education for an improved future,” he said.

The Chairman further expressed worry at the rate at which Nigerian children were excluded from quality education which has resulted in a large number of out-of-school children.

”It is worrisome to note that the UNICEF report revealed that one in every five children in Nigeria is excluded from education.

“Also, in the low and lower-middle-income countries, around 40 per cent of children with disabilities are out-of-school at the primary level and 55 per cent at the lower secondary level.

” It is however sad to note that Nigeria is not excluded from these figures.

” Also, worthy of note is the dilapidated infrastructural facilities in our schools as well as the effective policy that would drive transformation in the education sector.

“I think knowledge is really today and everyone should have access to that. I challenge my fellow old students to do more for our school,” he said.

Dr Joseph Onyabe,  the Guest Lecturer from the Federal Montage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) said that the educational system must return to the time when quality and standard were important. 

Onyabe, who is also a lecturer in the Accounting Department, ABU Zaria, argued that schooling was better off in the 90s than it is now due to the current students-teachers ratio.

”The level of tertiary education was extremely high at that time, I’m sure those who listen to some of the speeches made earlier will agree with me that the students at that time may be because of the lower number had better attention from the lecturers.

”The student-lecturer ratio was very adequate, as a result, students were able to get enough time to meet their lecturers and ask questions where they did not understand those things that were treated and that has permitted all other areas in education.

”This is also because the good education they had equally affected the National Youth Service and equally affected the jobs that they did after completing their National Youth Service,” he said.

Onyabe expressed appreciation to God for blessing the accounting set of 97 which he counted himself fortunate to teach. 

He noted that his former students who invited him to the event were doing well in their chosen fields of endeavours.

”I am super excited to see my ex-students doing well in their various endeavours, that the fact that they’ve been able to come together and keep that unity is something that I think other people, other classes will need to emulate.

”This is because this is the first class that I’ve been invited to attend and I’m not sure that the other classes have been as organised as this one,” he said.

On her part, Hajia Binta Nadada, CEO Bahaz Crafts Ltd. urged stakeholders to pull the various resources of the country together to create better jobs for the increasing population.

Nadada, who is also an old student of the school, called on the government to create more awareness about opportunities the youths could access to make them independent.

She said it was high time Nigerians leveraged the benefit of the country’s huge population by harnessing the abundant human resources to source locally made materials for production.

“When you look around, there are a lot of people graduating from the universities and Polytechnics waiting for jobs, it shouldn’t be that way.

”We are supposed to look inward and see how we can contribute our own quota personally in developing the country, so I decided to be an employer and not an employee.

“People also say that they don’t have the capital to start businesses, you don’t need capital to start a business, all you only need is passion, if the passion is there, the business will pick up then the capital now comes later to fuel the business.

”There are a lot of things that the government is doing as par helping entrepreneurs but they are not creating awareness because a lot of things are going on that people don’t know about,” he said.

Nadada also advised civil servants to look inward and establish their own businesses to create a means for employing graduates and collectively reducing the rate of unemployment in our society.