By Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Emmanuel Secondary School Old Boys Association (ESSUOBA), Ugbokolo, Benue State expressed great concern over the continuing crises facing the education system in Nigeria.
The Association, through its newly elected President, Captain Patrick Olonta, said so during its 2022 Annual Delegates Convention held recently in Ugbokolo, Benue State, where new leaders were elected.
He lamented that declining education standards, infrastructure crisis, poor examination practices, moral decay, worship, strikes and other challenges have wreaked havoc on the country’s education system.
He therefore insisted on the need to overcome these challenges to give the country a clear lever of competitiveness in the contemporary reality of a global knowledge economy.
“The role of old boys and old girls in rebuilding and directing the affairs of their alma mater through critical intervention cannot be overstated.
“Making a critical intervention to save our national education system is a vital role required of our former boys and former girls across our country to enable us to raise our education system from the lowest level it has reached and improve development human capital resources, which is the greatest weapon. competition in the 21st century.
Olonta further denounced the rapidly deplorable situation of the school in both its infrastructure and educational standards, pointing out that Emmanuel Ugbokolo Secondary School was one of the best schools in Benue State and was also highly rated nationally and run under the Catholic mission.
He said the school which was founded in 1968 has produced Old Boys who have contributed greatly to national and international development in different fields of health, education, banking and finance, security national, political, aviation, energy and other parts of the national bureaucracy.
The President (ESSUOBA) listed former boys of the school who went on to contribute significantly to the development of the country, including people like Senator Abba Moro, Deputy Chairman of the Senate Interparliamentary Affairs Committee and former Minister inside.
Others are Major General Elias Atuh of the Nigerian Army, Prof. Agbulu, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Prof. Armstrong Adejoh of Benue State University, among others.
“Education is the foundation of national development. Therefore, any nation that disregards or takes its education system for granted runs the risk of compromising its long-term national interest,” Olonta said.
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