By Ayodele Oni
The Federal Government has expressed its readiness to introduce measures to improve the quality of education in the country as well as guarantee security of students.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, said on Monday in Abuja that part of the measures is to increase by 25 percent budgetary allocation to education and put in place right policies.
The budgetary increase for education may be a welcome development for Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) as this has been one of members demands while on strike.
The minister disclosed these while declaring open the 2021 and 2022 Nigeria Annual Education Conference (NAEC) with the theme “Implementation of Education 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Nigeria”.
He also pledged his commitment to bridge the gaps between education policy statements and its actualisation outcomes.
Mamman noted that the country has a lot of good policies on what was required to do in the best interest of the nation, but that those policies were not bringing values to the sector.
”President Tinubu has directed the return of the 10.5million out-of-school children to school at the expiration of his tenure.
”We still have a long way to go. We are not matching the children in the country with the desired education and this is because our policies are not producing the values we need.
“What we need is the action on ground and not the policy declaration. This is where I can tell you we intend to come in. We want to bridge the gaps between policy statements and actualisation of outcomes.
“This is to give them future training that will enable them to live their lives and make them employers of labour. Everybody deserves to live a life of dignity for the well-being of their family.”
He said that the responsibilities of government was to provide government was to provide opportunities for Nigerians to be empowered adding that now is the time to make the policies reality.
The Minister also said that the basic and secondary schools must be equipped by developing appropriate skills template for creativity and research.
“We know that society that had benefitted from education are known for nurturing of creativity and research which starts from the lower levels.”
He stated further that there was need for implementation strategies to provide mechanisms for constant monitoring and evaluation of policies, to ensure the SDG goals were achieved.
The Minister expressed concern over the state of insecurity in the schools and nation at large, lamenting the recent killing of one Miss Deborah Atanda, a nursing student of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti few days ago.
He, however, directed Vice-Chancellor of the institution, in concerted efforts with the security, to uncover the perpetrators of the killing
Mamman charged stakeholders to work with the Federal Ministry of Education and agencies as well as State Ministries of education to identify innovative approaches for improved funding and ensuring inclusive equitable, quality education and life-long opportunities.
