Good day Mr. Chairman. Panel of Impartial Judges, accurate Time Keeper and my co-debaters. My name is Ajoku Wisdom; I am here to oppose the motion which states that "Schooling in rural areas is better than schooling in urban areas". Before I proceed, I would like to define the terms urban and rural areas. In the simplest term, a rural area is a village or the most undeveloped part of a country, while an urban area is a city or the most developed part of a country.
First and foremost, in the world today nearly everyone regard the schools in the urban areas as being of higher quality than those of the rural. If we could remember vividly, during the times of our great grand fathers, they used to struggle really hard to send their children to the city to acquire education, isn't it because of the quality of education being offered? Much of the success achieved by the urban areas over the rural areas is fueled by the fact that as people develop in the city, education also develops with them. But in rural areas, the reverse is quite the case. They have become myopic with their diabolic traditions that even in this 21' century they still cling to such ridiculous beliefs. For instance, in the rural it is popularly believed that the role of every girl is in the kitchen and not school. They belief that a girl shouldn't attain some level of formal education but such opportunity is open to the boys and that is gender.discrimination. In the city, this is the exact opposite. The schools in the city have created an avenue for both sexes to attain equal level of education and contribute to the society. This has sky rocketed development of the urban areas to a point that the rural areas can only dream of getting to.
Another significant reason is that technology wise or based on social amenities, rural schools are very below. They've been outpaced by the urban borne schools. Nearly all rural schools cannot boast of constant power, good classrooms, comfortable chairs, clean pipe borne water and a conducive environment for learning. If a school is suffering from epileptic power supplies, dilapidated structures that they call classrooms, how can a child then succeed in such an inimical environment? I can proudly slay that over 90% of students in the urban areas particularly Lagos state has all it takes to groom a child. My school Iju Senior Grammar School is a typical example. Just recently, my school acquired a solar panel in order to augment the power supply from PHCN. This is surely an evidence; the thinking faculty of urban school is way above that of rural schools.
Thirdly, for any school (precisely rural and urban schools) to be regarded as being better, we need to clock the most fundamental foundation which is qualified teachers. A school without qualified teachers is nowhere worthy to be be called a school. In the world today, for a teacher to be regarded as being qualified. he or she must possess at least a master's degree. Urban schools have achieved this feat successfully while rural schools still divide themselves with the notion that any teacher with an OND or HND is qualified or worthy to be called a teacher. Such is unfounded and ridiculous. There is a popular belief amongst everyone today and that is "you give out what you have and not what you don't have". This clearly explains the gap in knowledge between both. A teacher holding a master's degree or PHD will give out a more advanced form of knowledge. while an OND or HND holder cannot give anything other than the basics (i.e. Basic knowledge).
However, I would not feign ignorance to the fact that urban schools have their short comings or flaws but that shouldn't be seen as a basis to conclude that schools in rural areas are better. Though education in the urban areas may be expensive to some point, if you feel that way why don't you give into ignorance and judge for yourself. Even this so called expensive nature of education has caused its value to rise and considering how erroneously cheap education is in the rural area it has caused a huge depreciation in its value. Cost of education in urban areas should not be considered an excuse, cause some states precisely Lagos state. Imo state have declared education (in public schools) free for everyone. Isn't that wonderful?
Lastly. in an urban area's educational system there is the combination of both private (non free) and public (free education) schools. It is just like a mixed economy which is the fastest growing type of economy in the world. This gives those people in the urban area a choice. Therefore, I reasonably conclude that urban areas operate a mixed educational system. On the other hand, rural areas centers on single educational system. I'm not sure they've heard the phrase 'private school' before. Rural schools try to restrain the students within the confines of the failed epileptic systems which is bound not to grow. I can also describe the rural schools as a higher institution for people who want to become farmers. etc.
I hope that with these few points of mine, I have been able to convince and not to confuse you beyond all reasonable doubts that schools in urban centers are better than that of rural areas.