The Vice Chancellor ,University of Ilorin,(Unilorin) Professor Wahab Egbewole (SAN) has advocated consideration of innovative ideas to enable the push in education development agenda for the next generation of academics.
The professor of law also suggested the combination of both quality and quantity while decrying the desire in the Nigeria curriculum study for quantity at the expense of quality.
Prof. Egbewole stated that despite the fact that Nigeria believes in education as crucial to human development which is evident in the rate of establishment of educational institutions, the alarming poverty is highly abysmal.
The Unilorin Vice chancellor spoke on Thursday at the Federal University, Oye Ekiti,FUOYE while delivering the 7th convocation lecture of the institution with the title “ Learning is Schooling Plus “
Professor Egbewole said “the ideal education is a combination of both quality and quantity. we sincerely feel that being focused on what to choose and being flexible with kids’ choices might be beneficial. Thus, the substance of learning should be stressed ,the constant emphasis on quantity diverts our attention away from something far more important quality
“ one of the major issues that our curriculum in Nigeria must address for correction is our penchant for quantity at the expense of quality
“we are living in a “quantocracy”.we live in a world where everything is quantified and then appraised based on how much of something we have accumulated- more is always better.The assumption is that the greater the quantity ,the less likely it is to achieve a high degree of quality”
Professor Egbewole therefore stated “we must consider innovative ideas such as the use of blended financing to fund education,dynamic tuition pricing ,alumni-based and driven business models, universities as business ecosystems,educational infrastructure-as-a-service/device-as-a-service models,polymath and problem-solving –based curricula, and dual mode compensation schemes for university employees.”
The academic who lamented that “Nigeria is in deep throes today” added that “virtually every aspect of our national life is in crisis and not a few are hopeless that a solution could be found”
The FUOYE vice chancellor , Professor Abayomi Fasina,represented by the Deputy vice chancellor administration Professor Sola Omotola , the vice chancellors of Thomas Adewumi University,Oko, Kwara state and Landmark University also in Kwara state ,Prof.Fransisca Oladipupo and Professor Charity Aremu respectively commended the convocation lecturer for the scholarly lecture, urged that the contributions be made available to the public for relevant stakeholders to expedite action.