Vice Chancellor of the Federal University Kashere, Gombe State, Professor Umaru A Pate, has explained that the segmentation of education in the country on the basis of income, religion and locality, are threats to national integration.
Professor Pate stated this while delivering a lecture entitled “Education and Nigeria’s National Integration in Digital Age: Matters Arising”, on the occasion of the 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th Combined Convocation of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) in Bauchi.
He said, “National Integration has two important aspects which include first, the existing pattern of State and government, secondly, the formation and development of the character, mind, consciousness of every individual or citizens on the basis of common ideas, values, norms, law, beliefs and customs.”
He said education on the other hand refines and equips it’s recipient with values for human advancement that infuses knowledge and skills as well as promote integration, builds and sustain confidence for togetherness.
“Education is one of the highest ranking forces for our integration process at the national, state and local levels. The Unity Schools and the large number of federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, National Youth Service Corp scheme and the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) are all federal government education policies and programme to promote integration
“However today, our educational system is under threat on the basis of commercialization. In Nigeria today, 84 million citizens are living below the poverty line, how can they afford the kind of money our institutions are charging?.
” Every year, Nigeria produces 3.5 million seekers of employment, the question is: have the government established vocational schools that can cater for those who cannot afford the exorbitant charges by our institutions as well as making plans for these job seekers that are flooding the labour market?” he said
The don said that some of the consequences of subverting the values of education in national Integration include ethno-religious violence, insurgency, violent crimes, widespread corruption, poor governance, incompetence and worsening management of diversity and multicultural setting.
He said that the way forward was for the government to improve the management of diversity, adding that leaders in the nation should live by example, enhance digital technologies that promote hate speeches, make public school attractive for the people and equip citizens with the right skills that will enable them differentiate between rigth and wrong information.
