Don Blames Poverty on Poor Science, Technology Education

from All Africa

Daily Trust (Abuja)

By Abdulraheem Aodu
Kaduna

Nigeria's continued status as a third world country is due to its poor funding and neglect of science and technology education according to Industrial Training Fund (ITF) Director General.

Professor Longmas Wapmuk noted that unless the country takes science and technology education seriously, fund it adequately and stop committing what he referred to as unthin-king unilateral educational disarmament, the country would continue to wallow in abject poverty in the face of plenty.

Wapmuk who stated this in his address as the guest of honour at the 20th annual congress and honorary award ceremony of the National Association of Technical Teachers held in Kaduna urged the Federal Government to begin to achieve the objectives of the National Development Plan.

Speaking on the topic; 'Public Private Partnership for the Provision of Vocational Education in Nigeria', Wapmuk said it was lamentable that in the 21st century only 15 percent Nigerians have access to tertiary education.

"There is no way Nigeria can launch itself into the techno-logically sophisticated 21st century without massive in-jection of funds into science and technology education.

"There is a crippling neglect of science and technology education which explains why Nigeria after almost 50 years of independence is yet to leave behind her third world status. We have in effect been committing an act of "unthinking unilateral educational disarmament".

"The socio economic prog-ress of any nation is determined by the quality and content of its education, however the vocational component of education is scarcely attended to by the policy makers who rather places undue emphasis on liberal education.

"This is common in third world countries where the basic infrastructure to promote vocational education is critically lacking due to weak political will. This weak political will can either e attributed to acute paucity of resources or poverty of effective planning skills, he said."

He added that with 15 percent of Nigerians having access to tertiary education, the country is at risk as the educational foundation of the country has almost been totally eroded by the rising tide of mediocrity, which according to him, threatens the future of the people.