As public outrage continue to trail the mass failure in the 2024 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), the President’s Schools Debate Nigeria has said its activities would promote a reading culture and academic excellence among Nigerian students.
PSDN Chairman, Usman Mohammed, stated this at a press conference on Friday in Abuja.
Mohammed announced that the 24th edition of democracy debate, will hold in July this year with all public primary and secondary schools in the country participating from the local government level.
He pointed out that the national debate would also promote harmony and inter-regional unity amongst the youth as well as advance democratic values at an early age.
With over 70 percent of candidates who sat for the just concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) scoring less than 200 out of 400 obtainable scores, some analysts have attributed the cause on the dying reading culture among young ones.
Speaking at the briefing, Mohammed who was represented by the National Coordinator, Dare Oritu, urged Nigerian students to imbibe the culture of reading and explore the hidden treasures that lie in books.
He said they will used the programme to develop students’ practical skills and assist in improving their communication ability in English Language.
“The President’s Schools Debate Nigeria (PSDN) was approved in 2001 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a platform for organising school debate in Nigeria and subsequent Presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, thereafter, endorsed the programme in accordance with the 2001 approval and thus sustained it till date.
“The programme has been organised on an annual basis since then. It is thus our desire to employ the tenets of the programme to further the Renewed Hope agenda of the present government, especially in the field of education, culture and effective national patriotism,” he stated.
The programme, he said, is implemented in collaboration with major players in the Nigerian education sector including the Federal Ministry of Education, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and States Universal Basic Education Boards.
