By Yemi Adeleye
#TrackNigeria: The Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Lagos State on Saturday said it would use massive investment in education to combat problems of poverty, hunger and security in the state.
Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, the gubernatorial candidate of the party, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos said he had concluded all plans and strategies to use free education to reposition the state.
According to him, if voted as the next governor of Lagos State, he will increase funding for education, especially vocation and technical education, to reduce unemployment.
“We are going nowhere without education. We have politicized education extremely in the country and it has worked for our detriment.
“All we want to do in Lagos State is to revamp education in the state to fight poverty, hunger and security threats.
“We will make sure that we improve all infrastructure and motivation for teachers in both primary and secondary schools. Education remains the only weapon to fight poverty.
“Right now, a little above 12 per cent was budgeted for education in the state, we will increase this to 15 per cent in the first year and later increase to above 22 per cent closer to the UNESCO recommendation,” Pearse said.
He said that his administration would make sure each school had access to library.
The candidate, who is a university teacher, lamented the increasing number of unemployed and miscreants in the state.
“We must increase and improve our vocational and technical schools. The colleges of education must be treated with respect to have professional teachers.
“We cannot be releasing poor teachers from our colleges of education and expect students to be sound.
“Once people are educated and are skilled, they can get jobs; they will be employable and also can create jobs.
“Education is an anti-dote to poverty. The more educated a people are, the more level of employment, the less the poverty.”
On security, the candidate said that his government would expand and rebrand the neighbourhood safety corps for community policing.
Pearse said that the state had been under-policed with her huge population compared to lesser cities in developed climes. (NAN)
