By Felix Khanoba
Some Nigerians have criticised the Federal Government’s decision to establish six new Colleges of Education in the country.
They described the move as a misplaced priority and called for adequate funding of existing tertiary education institutions.
Personal Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on New Media, Mr Bashir Ahmad, had announced the President’s approval of the new colleges on his twitter handle, @BashirAhmaad, on Friday prompting a torrent of reactions.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of six new federal colleges of education in each of the six geo-political zones of the country. Bauchi, Benue, Ebonyi, Osun, Sokoto and Edo,” Bashir tweeted.
But scores of reactions that trailed the tweet described the approval of the new institutions as a wrong move and unpopular decision.
A twitter user, with the username @izanagi_jutsu, who reacted to the post said: “Existing federal and state academic institutions have decayed and are still decaying.
“The Federal Government should channel financial resources into fixing them instead of building new schools.”
Another Nigerian, Dada A. David, said adequate funding of existing institutions would have been welcome rather than creating new ones that would also suffer neglect.
“The nation has millions of graduates that are unemployed. The nation has a systemic issue. Current higher institutions are in disarray and worrisome. Why can’t the government properly fund these institutions that are moribond rather than creating new ones?” Dada queried.
However, another twitter user, Abdulhamid Abdullahi, said the establishment of the new colleges is a welcome development as they will ensure adequate qualified manpower at the basic education level.
He described the criticisms of the government’s action as unnecessary.
“Tomorrow you people will be shouting shortages of qualified primary school teachers across the regions and now efforts instead of you to commend the efforts of the government you are busy criticizing,” he said.
