Founder of Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti, (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), has decried the continuous fall in the standard of education in the country.
Babalola lamented that many graduates in the country cannot defend their certificates, a situation which he said was a cause for concern.
He spoke at a reception held in Igbajo, Boluwaduro Local Government Area of Osun State for Prof. Damilola Olawuyi, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, Research and Strategic Partnerships of the institution who recently became a Senior Advovate of Nigeria (SAN).
A statement in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, by ABUAD Head of Corporate Affairs, Tunde Olofintila, said Babalola who spoke on the topic: The Power of Education, expressed worry that many of today’s graduates cannot defend their certificates.
He described such a situation as a far cry from what obtained in the past.
“The common saying is that ignorance is a disease. I do agree. Indeed, poor education is worse than illiteracy. Poor education is even more dangerous than ignorance.
“But what do we have today? Indeed, I mean the type of quality and functional education I had in my primary school, which I am now replicating in my university, ABUAD.
“Due to poor education, Nigeria is today producing graduates whose education makes them more dangerous than uneducated people.
“Today, Nigeria produces graduates who cannot write simple and correct sentences; graduates who do not understand the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs.
“We have graduates who do not know the place and import of prepositions in grammar; graduates who do not know the use of adjectives and adverbs; graduates who do not know the place of agreement of nouns and number; graduates who do not know the import of adjectival and adverbial clauses.
“There are graduates who do not know the difference between Tropics of Cancer and Tropics of Capricorn.
“There are those who do not know Magellan line, that is, the line that divides the earth into two.
“There are many graduates who do not know the distance between the earth and where the rain starts to fall.
“There are also those who do not know why we have day and night or the difference between Neap or High Tide or the fact that what is called heaven consists of billions of stars and different planets.
“Whereas our towns will only be better if we have quality education, our nation will be better if we have quality education, and the world will be better if we all have quality education,” he said.
Babalola urged all stakeholders in the Education sector to bridge the gap in the sector within the shortest possible term.