THE president, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayuba Wabba has urged the Federal Government to make education accessible to all youths to combat poverty and unemployment.
Wabba said this at the ongoing Sixth Quadrennial Delegate Conference of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions in Abuja.
He said education was the best tool to combat poverty and unemployment among the less privileged in the country.
According to him, reviving the sector will create more opportunities, as well as make the youths self-sufficient and less dependent.
He said education had become too expensive and inaccessible to many youths, and decried the poor state of infrastructures in most tertiary institutions in the country.
“What will benefit the system is educating the children of the poor, so that they can become self-sufficient.
“Education has become so expensive that the children of the poor cannot access it.
“Many families cannot afford to send their children to state and federal universities because they have become too expensive,” he said.
The NLC president said education was the only tool that could end poverty among millions of Nigerian youths, if adequately utilised.
He listed poor funding, lack of sponsorship, grants and inconsistent government policies as many hurdles preventing the less privileged from becoming educated.
He expressed dissatisfaction that no Nigerian university was ranked among the first 1000 institutions in the world because of the falling standard of the sector.
“How to end poverty in the country is by giving education to the children of the poor.
“If you are looking for the best schools, you can only find them in the private sector because our public education is being neglected by the government.
“Reviving the education system will make our children self-sufficient, and government will not need to give incentives to keep them off the streets or crime,” he said