Prof. Sulyman Abdulkareem, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, has faulted the country’s education curriculum as it prevents Nigerian students from excelling in schools abroad.
Abdulkareem made this remark during an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Ilorin.
He said the curriculum does not give room for an inter-disciplinary approach to learning, making it difficult to produce students with wholesome knowledge.
He also noted that there is a problem applying knowledge in Nigeria unlike in some countries where knowledge is easily applied to solve human and societal problems.
“Education should address human problems.
“We need a hybrid of science and humanities to move education forward and make it meaningful to the society,’’ he said.
He urged leaders to have integrity, which he said, “is what can make them be trusted by God and man’’.
He added that when there are honesty and fairness, there would be peace.
Abdulkareem maintained that integrity would require a person to be reliable.
Asked whether corrupt leaders are solely responsible for the many problems confronting the country, the vice-chancellor said that while leaders, at all levels, have a role to play, “it is the individual aspirations that would determine the fortune of any country’’.
“If we have good leadership in all spheres of the society, the people will smile.
“We should consider any form of misuse in the society as corruption.
“It is corruption when a lecturer forces a student to have sex with him and he, in return, awards grades to the student on account of the ungodly relationship.’’
The vice-chancellor also cautioned public office holders not to spend public funds like private funds.
He advised that leaders should consider themselves to be fortunate and should show gratitude by using the opportunity to advance the people.
He admonished the younger generation to work hard and use their youthful years to prepare for a future.