A school proprietor, Malam Aliyu Badmus, has called on the National Assembly to make a law prohibiting parents from enrolling children under the age of six in schools.
Badmus told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Ilorin that the falling standard of education in the country was attributable to premature enrollment of children in schools.
“We need to scrap enrollment of children below six years of age in schools because it is causing poor development of children.
“We have seen examples of university graduates who find it difficult to write application letters and biology graduates who cannot make use of the microscope during recruitment exercises,” he said.
According to him, parents should take care of children until the age of six before enrolling them in schools to make learning more meaningful and result-oriented.
He said that children needed to develop their abilities before going to school, adding that early schooling for the underage hampered the development of such abilities.
Badmus, Proprietor, Iqra Group of Schools, Ilorin, blamed the falling standard of education on government’s failure to fund education properly.
He also blamed the situation on the proliferation of private schools and corrupt parents who indoctrinated their children with corrupt practices from tender ages.
“To remedy the situation, government must come up with an adequate actionable education policy, not a policy only on paper.
“Adequate infrastructure must also be provided in classrooms and for research work,” Badmus said. (NAN)