The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi has expressed concern over the lack of commitment to education in Nigeria.
Mr. Obi was reacting to the abysmal performance of candidates who sat for the 2024 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) in the country.
Recall that WAEC recently announced that it recorded a 7.69 percent decrease in the performance of the candidates who sat for the examination.
WAEC said, compared to last year’s 79.81 percent, the percentage of candidates who obtained credits and above a minimum of five subjects, including English Language and Mathematics this year, was 72.12 percent.
In a statement posted on his X handle on Monday, Obi said, “This constant decline in our educational performance and other critical areas demands urgent attention and action”.
He said, “with our claimed literacy rate of over 50%, we are still ranked 187 on the global scale of literacy, reflecting a visible lack of commitment to education in the country. Our investment in education, as with other critical areas, remains poor”.
According to him, a total capital expenditure for the entire education sector, including the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), was N330.3 billion, adding that for a country with about 81,520 schools at the primary level and 23,550 schools at the secondary level, such an amount is visibly poor.
“The aggressive investment in education we made in Anambra State under my administration greatly transformed education in the State, and still bears fruits to this day”, the former governor of Anambra State noted.
He, however, congratulated all the students who sat for the 2024 WASSCE, especially those who made impressive results.
“I applaud their efforts, hard work, and dedication to their studies, which paid off.
“And to their respective schools, management, staff, and teachers – I especially celebrate you all. Your contributions to the educational growth and overall development of our society remain laudable”, he said.
