Our children are not alcoholics – PTA leader tells NAFDAC

To some people, the standard of education has fallen. To some, moral decadence in schools has been elevated to a great height and probably that was why the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, recently said students in basic schools are consuming sachet alcohol.

However, Mr Ayopo Somefun, the Southwest Zonal Coordinator of Parent Teacher Association of Unity Colleges sees some of these things in different angles. In this interview, he speaks on a number of issues in the education sector.

Excerpts

Could you give a brief introduction of yourself?

I am Ayopo Somefun. I am an agriculturist and I have been practising professionally for 28 years. I am currently the Chairman of the Parent Teacher Association of Federal Government Technical College, Ijebu Imushin, Ogun State and I am also the Zonal Coordinator of Southwest PTA Forum of Unity Colleges.

As a PTA leader, how would you describe the standard of education in the country?

The standard is not poor, but the quality of incentives being given personnel who are educating our children is nothing to write home about compared to what what we had when we were in elementary and secondary schools. You see dilapidated classrooms with staff rooms that are in sorry state. Lack of furniture for staff and students and incentives for staff being poor. There is also this high level of moral decadence students now face because of the poor economic conditions of their parents. All these have put more stress on teachers. Everybody is running after money, not minding the quality of education being imparted on the children.

You now hear the slogan “education is a scam” because several people are making money without being educated. But that is not what we met when we were young. Then we used to sing “Bata re a dun kokoka, to ba kawe re, bata re a dun kokoka” (your shoes will sound loud when you walk if you are educated). I don’t think the standard is bad because people still leave this country and go abroad and shine like a thousand stars in foreign universities. Last year, in a particular school in the United Kingdom, in a class of 48, 30 were Nigerians and they all made distinction. So, there is nothing wrong with the quality.

What is the role of parents to ensure qualitative education and high standard?

Parents cannot leave education for the government alone, whether it is the federal or state government. We all have to contribute similarly or equally because it is for the benefit of our children, who are the future generation and leaders. Parents need to put more efforts even if the government and the private sector are putting their efforts. The job of teaching our children and funding education should not be left for the government alone. Parents, government, teachers and the private sector should come together and form the synergy to make life better. This is because education goes a long way to form a nation and decide where the naton will be.

Earlier, you mentioned the issue of moral decadence, is that what informed the claim by NAFDAC that Nigerian students have become alcoholics? Or what do you think formed the basis for such a claim?

To me NAFDAC is just being political with that statement. I have gone round the country and in recent months, I have been to more than 14 unity schools, there is nothing like our students consuming alcoholic drinks, not even in other public schools. In Nigeria, can anybody say there is a school where hawkers stand by the gate and sell alcohol to students? Whether in the rural or urban areas, such things don’t happen. If you see people hawking things close to a school premises, it would be snack and writing materials or books that students can buy.

From the societal point of view, you find these sachets of alcoholic drinks with artisans and people of higher age grades than teenagers or adolescents. I don’t know where NAFDAC got that from. I can tell you that in our schools whether public or private, you cannot find anything like that happening. I can tell you that it is only among the working class in the society that you can find such habit of taking alcohol. I don’t know where they got that from. Probably, NAFDAC said that to whip up sentiments. Also, labelling Nigerian children as alcoholics is a statement NAFDAC has to withdraw. It is an insult to the entire parent association in the Southwest and across the country.

Then what do you think could have informed NAFDAC’s claim?

I think they just wanted to whip up sentiments and play an emotional game on parents particularly. You know such a statement would touch the emotions of parents.

They just wanted to whip up sentiments against the producers of alcoholic drinks. I have been to Germany, a town Brehme is more or less like a brewery town and there are over 600 breweries in Germany, and children don’t take alcohol or are labelled as alcoholics. The issue NAFDAC should focus on is the enforcement of their advocacy that alcohol is not meant for people below a certain age. Cigarette makers have their own advocacy which says “smokers are liable to die young.” That is what NAFDAC should do, not calling Nigerian children alcoholics. They should not give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. That statement has to be withdrawn and we, parents, take exception to it.

What about the presence of hawkers near our schools? Some may be selling harmful things to students.
Hawking around schools may be difficult to stop because of the poor standard of living in the country. And not all parents are able to adequately feed their wards. Most of the time, the students don’t go to school with the food they will eat. Their parents would just give them a token to buy snacks in school.

When the government found out that some children are not going to school because they don’t have what to eat, they started the School Feeding Programme. Parents just give their wards a token to buy something to eat in school and that is why we have hawkers around the schools. Don’t forget also that most schools don’t have butteries or where students can buy snacks for instance. Students have to depend on hawkers. Until the standard of living improves and families can feed well, it may be difficult to stop hawking near our schools.

As the PTA chairman of a technical college what is your impression about federal government’s free technical education and giving stipends to students?

The current approach to technical education is the beginning of better things to happen in our industrialization efforts as a nation and making the country great. It is a programme that is laudable and needs to be sustained even beyond this current administration. Without skills, it is always difficult to pay your bills. Skillful people are always employed. Those technical schools equip the students with skills and those skills are relevant for the children to be able to get something doing for a living. I commend the federal government for it and pray that the programme extends technical education to primary school level to produce people that will service our industries and stop the practice of sending our raw materials abroad instead of turning them to finished products here at home. (Vanguard)