Nigerians’ craze for certificates is causing great harm to the nation education

>>The former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, has faulted Nigerians’ craze for certificates, saying it is causing great harm to the nation’s education. Bankole spoke while delivering a lecture titled, “Tertiary Education: The Pathway to Sustainable Development” at a lecture organised by the Institute of Education, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. The former Speaker, who called for functional education, said institutions of higher learning should be centres for grooming future leaders to enable them to tackle the nation’s socio-economic challenges. He said, “Nigeria places emphasis on paper qualifications, and today we have many educated illiterates. We need functional education and our higher institutions should be centres where future leaders are groomed to solve socio- economic challenges.” According to him, the nation’s education should seek ways of equipping students and preparing them to be strong individuals. He added, “Our institutions should also equip them to be people of strength and character to enable them to get involved in politics. Nigeria has suffered from bad leadership. Our research centres should help the country to produce strong leadership. Such centres should become the performance indicators of the country.”