The Minister of State for Education in Nigeria, Dr. Yusuf Sununu says the challenges of obsolete curriculum facing the education sector has been addressed, as updates have been carried out to meet the 21st Century Needs of the country with an emphasis on skills acquisition.
The Minister stated this at the Voice of Nigeria Studio in Abuja, while featuring in a programme titled “In The News”
Sununu said the issue of obsolete curriculum was one of the major challenges met on assumption of office, stressing that the update which includes skills acquisition will ensure that upon graduation, even at the primary school levels, a student would have been ready for the job market.
“By his initiative, we have been able to change certificates awarded by schools based on character and learning to now include skills,” he said
According to him, the new curriculum focuses on the use of information and Communication Technology, ICT, in the learning process.
The Minister said; “We all agreed that our curriculum is obsolete, outdated, and we have succeeded in virtually updating the curriculum, from nursery school to our secondary school.
“We have addressed a curriculum to address our needs. It emphasis on the role of technology, on how to be effective in AI, ICT, coding or whatever, including relevant skills.
“We lay much emphasis on basic education, as at today, we have completed another set of 53 vocational basic education Schools, and these are all equipped with modern gadgets.”
Sununu said; “the ministry is lucky as President Bola Tinubu has tripled the budgetary allocations to the sector, in an effort to upscale funding to the 15 to 20 percent advocated by the UNESCO,” stressing that it has also improved access to tertiary education locally and international via TETFUND, Scholarship Board and the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, which have all brought relief to the Universities, parents and students.
“The scholarship Disbursement to our students now have more than tripled that of last year, especially under the Bilateral Education Agreement
“Through NELFUND, for the first time universities are now receiving 400 million, 300 million, 200 million coming in bulk. And we all know the advantage of bulk money in terms of planning. Parents and students have also gotten relief as registration fees are paid by the fund and students equally get stipends every month for their daily running,” he explained.
Partnerships
Sununusaid through partnerships with the state and local governments the matching grant for State governments through the Universal Basic Education, UBEC, has more than doubled compared to what obtained before.
“Many funds were lying fallow when we came onboard but now many of the states are accessing their funds to develop basic education which is fundamental to all forms of education,” he said
Sununu said through implementation of the new education roadmap 2023, using especially the DOTS component, which stands for: Data Repository, Out of School Children Education, Teacher Training and Skills Acquisition, a lot of Data on infrastructure, numbers of schools, teachers, students, location among others are being collated, which is aiding planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
The Minister said; “There are estimated 20 million out of children in Nigeria but through concerted efforts of the ministry and relevant agencies, in the last one year, over 4 million out of school children have been returned to the class and more are being registered across the country.”
“Similarly, through intensive teachers training,and motivation, the ratio of teachers to students have greatly improved, especially in the hard to reach areas.
“We are equally ensuring the Skills s are thought in schools, as I earlier mentioned. In addition to that we are harnessing non school environment skills acquisition alike because there are people that have not gone to school but are highly skillful and intelligent,” he said.
Sununu said the ministry, in the last one year, has equally engaged the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN and many Chambers of Commerce. This is to ensure that research from the universities are used in the industrial sector for local productions ,which will create employment, reduce pressure on the nation’s foreign exchange and reserve as well as curb inflation.
The Minister that said due to public outcry, the ministry has taken the bull by horn to address issues of fake certificates from foreign countries, emphasizing that, currently, with the aid of security operatives, the government is tracking down the beneficiaries in the public and private sector for discipline.
“It is shocking to reveal that after visitation to countries like UK, Turkey and others by the committee, about 22,000 fake degree certificates were traced to Benin Republic and Togo alone by the committee,” he said.
Academic Institutions
On strike in the academic institutions, the education Minister said based on President Bola Tinubu’s eight point agenda, which harp on educational sustainability, the ministry has gone into series of negotiations with the Academic and student Unions to avert strike actions.
“You will agree with me that in the last one year, there have been no strike in our Tertiary Institutions. I want to commend ASUU and other Unions for giving human faces to all our negotiations.
“The President has approved 25/35 percent salary increase, approved Governing Councils, remove them from IPPIS, and granted them autonomy as demanded. More are coming up as negotiations continue,” he said.
Sununu said the age of admissions into Universities in Nigeria from the constitutional provisions remains 18 years based on the 6-3-3-4 education system.
“But for the 2024 admission, we have brought it down to 16 years. However, the contending issues will be discussed in the next National Council on education meeting for an agreement to be reached.
“We do not encourage situations where immature Children of 10 and 11 years are being admitted into Universities. However, we are giving room for those who are gifted,” he said.
The Minister also dispelled the rumour on the increment of fees of Unity colleges in the upward of 300 percent. He said documents were forged, while insisting that no Kobo has been added to their school’s fees, saying that the president feels the economic hardship being felt by parents..
On the outlook for the Education sector, the Minister said in the next five to 10 years, he hoped to see that education in Nigeria becomes highly qualitative, competitive, and able to address the needs of Nigerians present and in the future, while contributing lively to the global economic development.
“Today, go to America, go to United Kingdom, go to anywhere, exclude Nigerians from education of that country. You will have nearly empty classes.The highly intelligent, talented people who are foreigners to those countries are Nigerians. So, like our forefathers, President bola Tinubu is working so that we can get to the best destination,” he added.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
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