The convener of Quramo Festival of Words, Mrs Gbemi Shashore, has bemoaned the sharp drop in the quality of education in Nigeria.
According to Shashore, who is the executive publisher at Quramo Publishing, since the inception of the literary festival that awards writers with unpublished works, the quality of manuscripts submitted for consideration for the award has dwindled greatly.
Shashore spoke on Thursday at a press briefing ahead of the seventh edition of the Quramo Festival of Word with the theme, ‘Connecting the Dots’ slated to be held between October 4 and 8.
The five-day event will feature workshops, masterclasses, movie screenings, drama, stage places, panels and word slam.
Running for the seventh year, the event will culminate in the unveiling of the Quramo Writers Prize winner, who will clinch a publishing deal with the house and cash prize worth millions of naira.
Also present at the briefing were Aduke Gomez, representative of the Irish Consulate, Lolade Alaka, festival director and the judges: Lechi Eke, Dr Eghosa Imasuen and Anote Ajelrou.
Fielding questions from our correspondent on the number of applications it received this year, the publisher said over a thousand submissions were competing for the juicy awards worth millions of Nigeria.
“We get over a thousand submissions. It (the number) hasn’t dwindled but the quality has gotten worse. The number (of entries) is rising and quality is dwindling and that is the educational system of my country.
“When we look at the manuscripts, the quality is dwindling in writing and I attribute it to the fact that not enough is done in our educational system and if we don’t start addressing them now, I don’t know what will become of us,” she said.
