Nigerian students should be competitive with peers anywhere

FROM the Administator of the Grace High
School, Gbagada, Lagos, Mrs. Tokunboh Edun, came an admonition that the content of education in Nigeria should always be in line with the realities in the international scene.

Speaking at an interactive with parents and some old students of the school, Edun said schools have a responsibility to ensure that their students do not miss opportunities that can put them in a position to favourably compete with
their counterparts anywhere around the globe.

Responding to a question on why her school decided to teach Chinese language since the children are already learning English and French, she said: “On the decision to introduce mandarin as a subject, we discovered that in Europe and America, Chinese language is
gaining more recognition because of the growing importance of China in world trade and politics.

It is in line with international standard that we decided to introduce Chinese language. Some people have been wondering how many foreign
languages our children will have to learn.

But I do not think the children will loose anything if they learn English, French and Chinese. It does not prevent them from learning our indigenous languages. All we want is a situation where our student can compete with their peers all around the world. This is part of views that education
should promote global peace.”

According to her, “We have four Chinese on the staff now.  We also work with the Confucius Institute at the University of Lagos. You can see that one of our special guests during the graduation ceremony was Professor Lirong
Jiang, Co-Director, Confucing Institute,
University of Lagos who has been working with us to promote teaching of Chinese language at Grace high School.”

On how the government can actually transform the education sector, she said the shortest way to achieve success in that regard is to vote more money to the area.

“If you have been following closely issues in the education sector, especially at the
secondary and tertiary levels, you will see that inadequate funding is a major issue.

That is why stakeholders have been calling on government to increase funding on education.

I believe that we can do more for education in this country. So my suggestion is that the Federal Government should lead the way by improving funding of education.”

Edun explained the Grace Osinowo Football Competition organised recently for the colleges in Lagos ands why it is an annual event.

“Really, the annual Deaconess Grace Osinowo Football Competition is to honour my late mother who founded Grace Schools over 40 years ago. The school management decided to create a way of remembering her legacies and
also keep the children positively engaged.

That was why we thought of a popular thing among children. And we have seen that the students love soccer. Also, late Deaconess Grace Osinowo was a lover of sports. Right from the beginning
sports development has been very prominent in the school and the competition is a confirmation
of that,” she said.