By Yemi Alesh
Kenneth Mellanby Hall warden, Dr. Ademola Ibukunoluwa Atanda, delivered the 16th Faculty of Education lecture on Wednesday, March 24th, 2021.
Dr. Ademola Ibukunoluwa Atanda who is of the Department of Educational Management delivered the lecture titled, “Strengthening the Schooling Bridge: Nigerian Secondary Education for Structural Reinforcement”. In his lecture, he described the secondary education system as a bridge between primary education and tertiary education. He however said that secondary education system in a Nigeria is faulty and in need of structural reinforcement.
Dr. Atanda presented research data to prove that most secondary schools in Nigeria do not comply with the National Policy on Education’s minimum requirements for infrastructure, provision of counseling services, provision of essential health services, and the ratio of student to teacher. He also mentioned that the government has never spent up to 26% of its annual budget on education as recommended by the National Policy on Education. “Regrettably, there has never been a year for the past two decades that the federal government voted up to 15% on education. The proportion of the national budget on education has declined consistently from 2016 to 2019” he lamented.
Towards redressing the challenges of the secondary education system, Dr. Atanda recommended that functional counseling services and adequate sports facilities and toilet facilities should be provided. He also recommended that vocational and technical aspects of secondary education should be resuscitated while a healthy relationship between the school and the community is encouraged. Lastly, Dr. Atanda advised the government to consider investing on education rather than merely spending. “When education is viewed as an investment, certain parameters are taken into consideration before allocating funds accordingly. In this lecture, it is recommended that facts on different aspects of secondary education and other levels have to be allocated with economic considerations”, he said.
Dr. Atanda’s lecture was the third faculty lecture to be delivered by a lecturer from the Department of Educational Management. Dr. Atanda who is currently a Senior Lecturer at the department appreciated God, his family, church and a host of other academics who supported him through his professional journey in Univeristy of Ibadan. In his closing remarks, he also appreciated the students and management at Kenneth Mellanby Hall with whom he has worked since 2013.
Dr. Atanda was first appointed as Assistant Hall Warden of Kenneth Mellanby Hall in 2013 and later appointed as Hall Warden in 2016 before he was re-appointed for a second term as Hall Warden in 2019.
