THE Federal Government has revised the National Teacher Education Policy (NTEP) to ensure that educators are equipped with the tools, knowledge, and skills needed for quality education.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, who made this known in Abuja, noted that the review was done in collaboration with all stakeholders with the consciousness of the importance of teachers in the education system, especially at foundational and basic levels.
“The review intends to chart the course for teacher education and development in Nigeria and ensures that it equips our educators with the tools, knowledge and skills they need to provide high-quality education,” he said.
Mamman disclosed that the draft document would be validated by stakeholders early in 2024 for implementation.
The Minister said that in recognition of the importance of education in preparing and equipping the citizenry, the Federal Ministry of Education had set in motion the process of repositioning the sector to attain government’s agenda for development.
He said that the process included developing a well-structured roadmap that lays down the building blocks that align the education system with the socio-economic realities of the 21st century.
He noted that the road map captioned, ‘Education for Renewed Hope’ specially focused on out-of-school children, girl-child, skills and entrepreneurship education.
According to him, to reposition the educational system, it has become imperative to enhance the quality of basic education in paying attention to inclusivity, and review and update the curriculum across levels.
While appealing to stakeholders on the need to work collectively to improve the nation’s educational system for the better, the minister said the partnership that the ministry would be entering into with states and development partners would focus on a commitment to improve governance accountability, and coordination.
He added that the partnership will also focus on ensuring that the federal and state governments commit to increasing public financing as well as transparent and timely release of funds and that state governments fulfill the jointly-agreed counterpart obligations on efficient programme execution and achievement of results.
“Funding from the Federal Government and development partners to the states should be performance-based and disbursed on achievement of agreed results on policy reforms and service delivery outputs/outcomes,” Mamman said.
On adolescent education, Professor Mamman revealed that the National Policy on Senior Secondary and Re-Entry Guidelines for Adolescent Girls who dropped out of school prematurely has also been developed and adopted by the National Council on Education.
He said the two policies would considerably advance our interventions for returning more Nigerian children back to school.
To do this, we are placing a high premium on foundational and basic education, strengthening integration of existing non-formal schools into formal education systems, scaling-up adult literacy and non-formal education interventions, increasing opportunities for girl-child education and forging partnerships with all tiers of government as well as our development partners, he stated.
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