A Lecturer with the Kenule Polytechnic, Bori, Rivers State, Dr. Needam Yiinu Barisua has rated the quality of education in Nigeria higher compared to other West African countries.
Dr. Needam, who recently bagged a doctorate Degree at the 34th convocation ceremony of the University of Port Harcourt, dispelled the nation of the fallen quality standards of education in the country, contending that the fact that Nigerian students and lecturers performe excellently better whenever they go overseas means that our educational quality rates higher than other nations.
“People will tell you our educational standards have fallen but you see when our students and Lecturers go to study outside the country, they excell above others which means we are better in our quality here.
The Nigerian higher education standard is on high scale. There are more Professors in the Universities than before. Today, technology is changing yearly in Nigeria. So we are moving forward”, Dr. Needam declared.
The lecturer who advocated for more investments in technological education at the higher level rather than what he termed the current concentration in the study of applied Arts stated that it had become irrelevant to the developmental needs of the country.
Dr. Needam, a consultant Surveyor equally recommended the establishment of more Government owned Universities in the country rather than the upsurge of private Universities which he said have not measured up to standards in terms of providing facilities and quality manpower in the Institutions.
He refuted the insinuations that most professors in the nation’s university are half baked stressing that before one attains the status of professorship in an institution, he must have undergone various levels of processes and assessments and made so many research publications in local and international journals. “So you cannot call such person a half baked. There are no short cut in attaining the academic excellence of a professor in the university.
He described views that education in the country had become a scam as result of the prevailing socio-economic challenges in the country as worrisome contending that anybody who fails to embrace education at any level with the present realities of life should be regarded as dead. “Without education, you cannot properly evaluate things, without education you cannot move forward. If education is a scam, then who interpretes measurements or determine templates for medication for people to take. Education is pathway to wealth”, Dr. Needam stated.
