According to her, it is rather unfair to describe the current education system in such a manner.
She noted that education systems evolve over time to fit prevailing circumstances, thus the current education system is not of poor quality but instead suitable for the current times.
Speaking to JoyNews in an exclusive interview, she said, “I think every generation produces what it is capable of producing. Our students are still doing very well when they go abroad to other universities in the same way as in my generation. So who am I to say that their quality is lower? It may be different, but it may be dictated by the needs of the time.”
The Supreme Court Judge added that the advent of technology and the internet have drastically changed how students learn and seek information.
She explained that while in years gone by students would huddle themselves in university libraries to read for long hours, technology like internet-based scholarly resources have come to take away the rigours of tertiary education.
“Now they have all these social media outlets to help, they have all these computers. In my day, we literally slept in the law library. In their day, they have most of the materials they need on their laptops. The difference is that we went to the library to read because there was no other option.
“They think they have the material on their laptop so they know it. And I have been constantly cajoling them that having it in your room is not having it in your head. So I think making the jump between having it ready on-hand and reading it has been a challenge for some,” she said.
In recent times, stakeholder in the education sector have bemoaned the quality of graduates from the tertiary institutions. The concern is that many of them lack basic skills and are not on top of their courses of study, hence are unemployable.