President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said the poor standard of education in Nigeria is contributing to the worsening insecurity in the country.

Lawan stated this at the eighth matriculation of post-graduate students of the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILDS), University of Benin on Monday in Abuja.

Lawan, who was represented by Sen. Degi Biobarakuma (APC-Bayelsa), listed some of the consequences of the problems facing the education sector to include: insecurity, rising criminality, anti-social behaviour and a high number of unemployable youths.

You are well aware of some of the challenges and deficits in this sector, including limited funding, lack of infrastructure and teaching aids, poorly-trained personnel and low level of commitment, among several others.

These have adversely affected the productivity and output of our schools and centres of learning at all levels,’’ he said.

Lawan added that the National Assembly had amended the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act to ensure that the two per cent budgetary allocation to UBEC was increased to three per cent.

“However, lots more still remains to be done to ensure that all stakeholders at the state and federal levels do their part to strengthen the sector,’’ he said.

The Vice-Chancellor of the institute, Prof. Lilian Salami, urged the matriculating students to make discipline their watchword.

For the matriculating students, our expectations of you are very high, we believe that as the matured students that you are, you will not disappoint us.

“Rather, you will be the best that you could possibly be and be among our students and graduates who are writing the name of the university in golden letters everywhere,’’ he said.