Lagos — The education sector suffered prolonged industrial dispute last year. Qualified teachers, infrastructural and instructional materials, as well as funding remained inadequate, not to talk about abysmal results in public examinations. But in a 16-page document presented to the public recently, Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, who acknowledged these and more, said all hope was not lost.

This year, the Federal Ministry of Education will continue with the implementation of the Roadmap for the sector by paying special attention to improving access to quality basic and secondary education.

The Roadmap for the Education Sector, prepared by the Ministry and approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) last year, has four priority areas: Access and Equity; Standards and Quality Assurance; Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Funding.

Among others, the Ministry of Education will mount a special nation-wide Federal Government Intervention Skills Up-dating programme for teachers of English and Mathematics in secondary schools to address the problems of poor performance in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).

It also plans to reposition tertiary education to be globally competitive and improve quality, access and standards of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

These were part of the submissions of the Minister, Dr. Sam Egwu at the ministry's annual press briefing, chaired by the Minister of Information and Communication, Prof. Dora Akunyili in Abuja, recently.

Egwu told his large audience, which included the Head of Service, Mr. Steve Oronsaye; Minister of State for Education, Hajiya Aishatu Jibril Dukku, the Permanent Secretary, Prof. Oladapo Afolabi; heads of parastatals and representative of the Ministry of Women Affairs, that the ministry was providing frameworks through its many initiatives to engender the active involvement and participation of all stakeholders in education policy and programme development, implementation and monitoring.

Management Audit of all the departments and agencies has been introduced to address institutional capacity to ensure service delivery and a culture of excellence in the achievement of its statutory mandate.

But how did the ministry and its 22 parastatals fair last year? In a 16-page presentation that lasted hours, the Minister dwelt on their achievements and challenges.

Last year's federal government budget for education was N224 billion, N40 billion for re- current expenditure and N184 billion for capital projects. Egwu said the ministry had so far recorded an 85 per cent performance, the highest in the last 10 years. He also expressed optimism that the ministry would exceed 90 per cent performance by the end of the fiscal year next month.

The Minister stressed that since education is on the concurrent list, which makes it a shared responsibility of federal, state and local governments, a lot rests on the shoulders of state and local governments, which are primarily responsible for Basic and Secondary education. Low enrolment in basic and secondary education, as well as transition from junior to senior secondary school, remain a major challenge.

According to him, the federal government formulates policy and gives direction in its implementation, but will continue to make special interventions and provide models of best practices at all levels.

At the Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE) level, for example, he said the federal government, in collaboration with UNICEF, opened a model ECCD Resource Centre and Creche in Abuja, recently. This, Egwu said, is to ensure the implementation of the Integrated Early Childhood Development policy.

The partners had earlier conducted a study on capacity gaps assessment for Early Child Development (ECD) in in - service/pre - service teacher development nationwide. The study highlighted the challenge of inadequate number of educators with required qualifications at the ECCE in the country. An online ECD programme for lecturers in Colleges of Education has therefore commenced at the Virtual University, Victoria, Canada. It is being sponsored by the World Bank and coordinated by UNICEF.

At the basic education level, the minister said the federal government intervenes through the Federal Teachers' Scheme (FTS) where holders of the National Certificate in Education (NCE) are recruited to serve in the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

States are expected to augment their N10, 000 monthly allowances, paid by the federal government, and also retain them after the year-long service, so as to gradually replace the number of unqualified teachers in the system.

Out of the first set of the 40, 000 participants in the FTS, Egwu said 25, 068 were confirmed for permanent employment in 27 states. A second set of 34, 000 participants was recently recruited across the country.

Another initiative is the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Intervention Funds, which many states fail to access due to the requirement of a counterpart fund of the same amount as their allocation. About N40 billion accruing to many of the states is yet to be accessed.

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) also utilises 14 per cent of the Educational Imbalances Funds for the UBE Community Initiated Self - Help projects and has so far disbursed N2.778 billion as First Tranche Support funds to over 2, 032 Community Initiated Self Help Projects. In all, a total of N30, 063, 048,660.48 was disbursed as Matching, Educational Imbalance, Special Education and Good Performance Grants to deserving states and the FCT.

To address low performance of pupils in the core competencies of numeracy, literacy and life skills, the ministry procured and distributed 7,962,812 copies of recommended textbooks in English Language and Mathematics, as well as Science-based Activity Books for Primary 4, at the cost of N4.287 billion. Junior Secondary Schools in the 36 states and the FCT also got 494,875 copies of 107 library titles.

Egwu said plans were underway for the procurement and distribution of English Language, Mathematics, Science-based activity text books for primary 5 and assorted titles of Library books for JSS, using the 2009 UBE Intervention Fund for Instructional Materials.

For secondary education, there are now 106 unity colleges in the country, with the establishment of two Federal Science and Technical Colleges in Dayi, Katsina State and Doma, Nasarawa State, last year.

The Minister said the colleges serve as models of what schools at that level should be. But it is a known fact that virtually all of them are a shadow of what they ought to be. To address this, he said, the ministry resolved to decentralise procurement. So, rather than award all their contracts from Abuja as the practice was, the principals, working with the School Based Management Committees (SBMC) have now been empowered to award and be held accountable for the execution of the contracts

On teachers, Egwu said if he had his way, teachers would be the highest paid in the country, earning more than even politicians. Even though he is also a politician, he said, this was the desirable thing to do if the country must get its priorities right. According to him,

According to him, it would be better if politicians were paid only allowances and not salaries. "People think that politics is the quickest way to make money, but very soon, politics will no longer be attractive." His optimism was hinged on the planned move to improve teachers' pay, once their professional registration is complete.

He disclosed that the Teachers' Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) had so far registered 730,000 teachers, 45, 000 of them last year alone. The production of their certificates started August last year. Those in Adamawa, Niger and Gombe States had remitted their subscriptions and would soon receive their valid professional licences, the Minister said.

One of the sub-sectors that has made the country proud, Egwu said, is the Nigerian Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The curriculum developed by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) has been described as a model for other African countries to adopt.

According to him, TVET remains one of the success stories of UNESCO's interventions in the country. For the first time, NBTE has developed 346 e-books targeted at the new TVE curricula to address the dearth of books in the sub-sector.

Last year, the ministry approved the establishment of 30 private sector-owned Innovation Enterprises Institutions (IEIs) and three Vocational Enterprises Institutions (VEIs) as alternative routes to higher education. Provisional approvals were also given to 59 other IEIs and VEIs.

New disciplines, including Plumbing and Pipefitting, Mechatronics, Furniture-Making and Upholstery, Cosmetology and Beauty Therapy, Printing Technology, Security Technology and Management, Banking Operation Techniques, Marine Engineering Technology, Shipping Management and Motor Vehicle Mechanics were developed for the IEIs and VEIs.

Sadly, there is still an aversion to TVET as it is seen as an inferior sub-sector. Egwu however drew attention to the importance that middle-level manpower to economic development, adding that professionals in that sector earn far more than the so-called university graduates and are more often than not, job creators as against seekers. This is why the sub-sector is one of the key focus areas of the Roadmap.

The National Mathematical Centre (NMC) and Nigerian Educational Research and Development Centre (NERDC) also made their marks last year. NMC introduced its own postgraduate programmes, at M.Sc. and Ph.D. levels in the mathematical sciences, in collaboration with six Nigerian universities.

Through this, courses that were non-existent in any Nigerian university are now being offered. The courses and collaborating institutions are: Mathematics in Biomedicine (University of Jos), Mathematical Modelling and Simulation of Engineering Systems, as well as Mathematical Ecology (Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi), on Technology in Mathematical Modelling in Maritime Technology (Federal University of Technology, Owerri), Information and Communication Technology in Mathematics Education (University of Ilorin), Information and Communication Theory (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and Financial Mathematics Programme (University of Abuja)

As a follow-up to the nine-year basic Education curriculum, including 3000 sign languages for learners with special needs; NERDC, among others, has also developed Teachers' Handbook for this curriculum; curricula in 40 subjects for senior secondary school, 34 entrepreneurial trades curricula, also for senior secondary school, draft curricula for Efik, Fulfude and Tiv languages; as well as a toy making and care-givers' manual in 13 Nigerian languages.

At the tertiary level, six federal universities, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), three federal polytechnics and Colleges of Education, across the six geo-political zones of the country were selected as centres of excellence and given special grants of a total of N40 billion, through the Education Trust Fund (ETF), for the construction and equipping of zonal central teaching and research laboratories, programme update and general improvement of the teaching and learning environment.

The National Universities Commission (NUC) last year licensed three state universities in Kwara, Sokoto and Ekiti, as well as seven private universities in different parts of the country. The commission undertook accreditation visits to 850 programmes in 58 institutions and re-visits to some MBA programmes. It also concluded work on the production of Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) for all postgraduate programmes in Nigerian universities. Fourteen illegal universities were also closed down between 2007 and last year.

In conclusion Egwu said the ministry craved the continued support, cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders in the task of quality education provision at all levels.

Akunyili congratulated him, saying the interaction was an eye opener. She took particular note of the Roadmap for the Education Sector, describing it as a first of its kind. The decentralisation of procurement in unity colleges, she said, was also worthy of commendation.