A Professor in the Institute of Education, University of Ibadan, Adenike .E. Emeke, has said that labour unrests arising from constant agitation by several unions in the university system have become destructive.
Professor Emeke who delivered a convocation lecture at Ignatius Ajuru University of education, Rumuolumeni on Friday stated that the 21st-century university education and any system built around it must be centred on the human person.
She said that the shift to person-centred education will mean promoting and nurturing high level of creativity, both in the personal and collective development of the learners, valuing more intensively, the learners freedom, to explore and enquire in all ramification those sensitivities necessary to develop them all round, redirecting the institutional system in education to creative approaches that will promote person to person interaction between the teacher and the learner, the learner and other learners, as well as between the learners and the community, which is so very rich in elements that can contribute to learning and societal growth.5
She pointed out that another challenge that Nigeria university is been faced with in this 21st century is ” labour unrest “.
She said that Nigerian Universities have been bedevilled for so many years by deliberate labour unrest by either ASUU, NASU, SSANU or the recent coined one JACK of which the end result is that there is hardly any university in Nigeria that has not been disrupted or which can boast of not putting its students through crash programs at one stage or another of their studies, a situation she said, does not go well for the university education system.
She also pointed out that many universities and institutions are not taking advantage of their immediate community, which is rich in helping them achieve their goals.
She noted that universities and their managers must remember that today’s societal expectations of them are more extensive and more complicated than they have ever been.
Also, the society must recognize that very many universities are struggling to balance financial and human resources against the many demands of the society that hosts them.
The society needs to know that they need to be partners in progress with the university education.
Continuing, she said, ” quality education in the 21st century cannot be identified with the simplistic set of metrics. Also, for high education to flourish, all leaders in government and in education must avoid the lure of reductionist measures and impulsive goals that Will foster a false sense of progress now but bitter disappointments as a result in the future.
She also pointed out in her lecture that the Nigerian universities in the 21 century are facing challenges of social responsibility and knowledge transfer.
She said “The work of the universities and other higher education institutions must be relevant; what they do and what is expected of them must be seen as service to the society. Their research must anticipate social needs and the outcomes of their researches must be shared effectively with the society through appropriate transfer mechanism. However, this is hinged with the experience of funding inadequacies in Nigerian university education system”
Earlier on in his welcome address, the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele, said his administration is gender friendly.
He pointed out that the registrar and the librarian are women, and he has chosen a woman for the first time in the history of the institution to deliver the lecture; not just because she is a woman but the best.
