No development without education, says Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said education is the foundation of every development and that no nation can develop without good investment in the education sector.

Jonathan spoke on Monday in Yenagoa during the Bayelsa State Education Summit with the theme, ‘Optimising the Delivery Performance and Sustainability of Outcomes in the Education Sector’.

The former president however admonished the Bayelsa State government to make sure that there is a uniform language that would be centrally spoken by all Bayelsans as a means of identity.

He advised all to study other foreign languages to become global citizens that could make them compete with rest of the world.

He, however, advised that all the decisions that would be taken at the five-day summit should be taken to the Bayelsa State House of Assembly to be gazetted and put into law, adding that the policy should be used to drive the education sector in the state for more than 20 years.

Jonathan said: “For you to develop society you can’t do without education. For you to change society it must be through education. To develop a people, you must invest in the education sector.

“I hope at the end of this programme, there will a techical committee to develop this policy in the next 50 years.

“Our children must learn how to speak at least two international languages. There must be a common language that will be spokes in Bayelsa State. If we must come together, there must be one common language we can use to communicate in the state.”

He also appealed to the Federal Government to consider investing more resources in developing nuclear technology in Nigeria, saying that it was what commands respect among comity of nations in the 21st century.

Delivering his welcome remarks, the Commissioner for Education, Bayelsa State, Hon. Gentle Emelah, said that the Education Summit was intended to bring stakeholders together to take a critical look at the infrastructural needs in schools, availability and quality of teachers, general enrollment numbers and transition rates from primary to secondary schools in the state.

Gentle said: “The summit is aimed at building the future of education in Bayelsa State. At this point, as a state, we must not pretend that we have not achieved our desired goals but proffer strategic framework that would improve the standards of education.

“To prove that we are committed to improving the standard of education in the state, we have built one technical school in all the eight local government areas of the state. So, by the end of this summit, we would come up with a 15-year education development plan and policy document.”

The Executive Secretary, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, who was represented by the Manager, Corporate Communications, Esueme Dan-Kikile, said that the board since its establishment had built ICT centers in five schools and trained 70 teachers in electronic learning system required for the post Covid-19 era.

He said: “We have built ICT centres in Nembe National Grammar School, Community Secondary School, Otuoke, Community Secondary School, Okpoama, Okaka Technical School and Community Secondary School, Swali, to encourage electronic learning system that is the emerging global education system.

“The board has also trained 70 teachers in modern knowledge based vehicles that proves to be the easiest and cheapest learning devices that can withstand the post Covid-19 education system.

“We have distributed this device to 21 public schools across the state. We have also trained 1000 youths on GSM development and technology skills. As a board, this is how we have been contributing to the development of education in Bayelsa State.”