Pubdate: Sat, 07 Jan 2006
Source: This Day (Nigeria)
Copyright: 2006 This Day.
Contact:  http://www.thisdayonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2870

SALEH DECRIES DECLINE IN EDUCATION

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation,  (SGF) Alhaji
Aminu Saleh has decried the steady decline  in the standard of
education in the North, particularly  in Katagum Emirate of Bauchi
State, and called on  governments and other stakeholders for urgent
and total  overhauling of the sector for the overall development  of
the region.

Saleh who made the call in a paper titled: "Problems  and Prospects of
Education in Katagum Emirate", which  he delivered at the Annual
Lecture organized by Katagum  Students Association of the College of
Education, Azare  also challenged elites and well meaning individuals 
from the area to contribute positively to the  development of
education in the Emirate because  according to the socio-economic and
political growth of  any society.

The former SGF, who is the Wamban Katagum lamented that  the present
educational system placed a lot of emphasis  "on developing the
ability to memorise and less  emphasis on developing problem-solving
and creative  thinking", and urged the elites and other stakeholders 
in the region to produce a blue-print aimed at  revamping the entire
educational system.

He enjoined youths in the area "to make skill  acquisition as our way
of life and we have to patronize  our people who acquired special
skills, as modern  technology has a lot of influence on everybody, and
we  either become part of it or be a prey to be hunted by  it".

He therefore, called for the establishment of an  Industrial
Department Centre (IDC) at Azare for the  purpose of facilitating the
development of indigenous  technology adding that they also provide
back-up  extension and counseling service for small and medium  scale
enterprises as well as fabricates and installs  equipment.

In his paper titled: "Cultism, Drug Abuse and Youth  Violence in
Nigeria", Prof. Abdu Ibrahim, chief  consultant, Psychiatrist and Head
of the Department of  Neuro-Psychiatry, Specialist Hospital, Bauchi,
called  on youths to rise up with one voice in rejecting drug  abuse,
illicit drug trafficking, rampaging protests,  violent confrontations
with constituted authorities,  campus cultism and related
retrogressive behaviours.

Ibrahim also stressed the need for a basic  understanding of
psychotropic drugs as part of a  comprehensive drug education and drug
abuse awareness  campaign for schools and tertiary institutions 
throughout the country saying that this should be in  collaboration
with government through the National Drug  Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA), "all in an efforts to  make our youths renounce and
resolutely eschew all  deviant psychopathological preoccupations and
other  vices".

He called for more commitment to the current nationwide  enlightenment
campaign by the three tiers of government  and other stakeholders
aimed at ridding our educational  institutions across the country of
the menace of drug  abuse, campus cultism, violence and all other 
degenerate behaviours among our youths.
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