Topic: ‘Poor infrastructure, staff, bane of education’

The Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, on Wednesday in Lagos, blamed the declining standard in tertiary institutions in Nigeria on decayed infrastructure

Egwu, who spoke with journalists at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, also identified poor quality of staff as one of the factors affecting the quality of graduates being turned out from the country’s institutions.

“The falling standard of education is a product of many variables, which include the quality of teachers, poor teaching facilities and poor quality of basic education,” he said.

The immediate past governor of Ebonyi State noted that the absence of sanctions for failed policies was responsible for the crises in the education sector.

While calling for effective implementation and monitoring of policies, he reiterated the government’s commitment to its reform agenda for the education sector.

He said: “Our emphasis will be on basic education. We must improve the educational system right from the basic level (primary school).”



“We must improve education from the beginning, that is when we will improve the facilities at our tertiary institutions. That will be the focus of our reform agenda.

“A lot of policies are initiated by government, but are not being followed up. Sanctions are not given to those who have failed to do what they were supposed to do,” Egwu said.




Egwu urged the Federal Government to establish study centres for the National Open University of Nigeria in all the 36 states to enable more Nigerians to access its programmes.

It is easier said than done!


This is not the time to start complaining. We already know there are serious problems in the education sector. What we need now is solutions (lots of it) to revamp our failed education sector. And we need to do that QUICK!

Action speaks louder!