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The Board Chairman of the Foundation, Dr Chiwuike Uba, said this in a statement issued on Sunday in Enugu to newsmen.
Uba raised the alarm on the sidelines of recent findings of a South-East region survey on education, which was titled; “The State of Education in South East’’.
According to him, it is clear from recent empirical findings that the standard of education in the South East is falling irretrievably and needs urgent attention from all – public and private.
“Public schools are almost a thing of the past, with dilapidated structures, demotivated, untrained and unqualified workforce.
“Whereas most parents feel comfortable sending their children to private schools, it is evident that, due to poor monitoring and evaluation, private schools may be worse than the almost dead public schools.
“We need to wake up from our deep sleep, develop new policies and approaches to address these challenges facing the education sector in the South-East.
“For the zone to create globally competitive youths who will transform the region; the South-East, should, as an emergency, rethink and redesign her education strategy.
“The zone urgently needs reforms in education,’’ Uba, who is a developmental economic expert, said.
The chairman noted that “education is one of the key ways to address poverty’’, adding that it contributes to improved health, human rights and gender equity, individual and long-term sustainable political and socioeconomic development.
“Literacy, baseline mathematical understanding and general life skills which are embedded in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools curriculum are needed to prepare the young population of the south east to create exponential value and for the technology revolution which is sweeping across the globe.
“Education is a human right; therefore, cannot be taken for granted.
“Doing so would not only amount to denying the children their right, but of the opportunities to secure a decent job, escape poverty, support their families and develop their communities,’’ he said.
Uba said that the foundation would soon make the survey and its findings available to state governments, educational institutions/organisations as well as developmental agencies and donors and educational stakeholders.
