By Sade Adewale, Ondo

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Ondo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Pastor Femi Agagu, has declared that quality education is the major panacea to socioeconomic problems bedevilling Nigeria.

Delivering a paper at a conference organised by the School of Education, Adeyemi College of Education Ondo, Agagu also stressed the need for the government and concerned stakeholders to pay greater attention to education, stating that its repositioning would enable the country to earn global recognition.

 Represented by the Ondo West Local Government Education Officer, Mrs Olubumi Ilori, the commissioner described education as a potent factor in any socio/economic and political reconstruction and for meaningful development to be achieved in any society.

He further noted that Nigeria could be in a good position to address her quest for good governance and enact policies that could help elevate her technological development with education.

 Expressing concern over the low state of the education system compared to global standards, Agagu made a case for revamping the education system to engender economic and human-capital development.

 Earlier, the Acting Provost of the College, Dr Abayomi Olufemi Olajuyigbe, called for judicious use of knowledge to proffer lasting solutions to help elevate educational development.

 In a keynote address, a Professor of Science Education and Curriculum Studies from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Prof. Emmanuel Folorunso Bamidele, stressed the importance of education to national development.

 He listed some factors affecting the education system in Nigeria, including collapsed foundations, inadequate funding and curricula failures.

 The don suggested increasing access to quality education, quality teachers’ education, good educational programmes, and partnership between government and stakeholders, which include civil society, communities and parents.

 He added encouragement of continuous learning education and improved monitoring and evaluation processes, to mention a few.

 Speaking on maximising the relevance of guidance and counselling for socioeconomic and political reconstruction in 21st-century Nigeria, a scholar of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Dr Oyenike Alake Oyinloye, stressed the importance of Guidance and Counselling in the task of achieving socioeconomic and political reconstruction in Nigeria.

 She recommended that Nigeria must increase investment in education by the government, train more school counsellors, establish counselling and human development centres across the nation, introduce vocational guidance in two tiers of secondary education, provide guidance for citizens of the country and place emphasis on emotional intelligence by counselling practitioners, among others.