The Federal Government has stated that the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is resolutely determined to reset Nigeria’s education sector as a critical component of his renewed hope agenda.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, made this statement at a one-day national stakeholders’ workshop on the development of a roadmap for the Nigerian education sector (2023-2027) in Abuja on Thursday.
During the workshop, the House of Representatives Committee on University Education called for salary increments for primary, secondary, and university teachers.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abubakar Fulata, specifically said that teachers should not earn less than N250,000, N500,000, and N1 million, respectively, as their monthly remuneration.
Prof. Mamman, who noted that the current administration would reset the education sector, stated that the Federal Ministry of Education has excellent policies on paper, but they are not meeting the needs of the people.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that special focus would be given to the new roadmap to address the phenomenon of out-of-school children, skills, and entrepreneurship education.
Mamman emphasised that the country’s education system does not align with the needs of society, thus necessitating the development of a roadmap for change.
He added that these roadmaps must be implemented within the shortest timeline.
“President Bola Tinubu has charged the ministry to do all it can to reposition the sector. We have problems that have been hindering the visions, missions, and objectives in place.
We have great and fantastic policies, but the issue is that our people are not seeing our problems addressed.
“We have institutions churning out graduates who are not employable, and we cannot continue like this forever.
So, in line with our president’s mandate, we must have a roadmap to guide the implementation of how to take the sector forward.
The purpose of this conference is to allocate sufficient time for the implementation of our policies,” he said.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abubakar Fulata, stressed the importance of adequately paying Nigerian teachers to encourage them to educate children.
He also emphasised the need to translate all subject textbooks into local languages to keep up with the rest of the world.
He noted that efforts had been made by past administrations regarding the country’s education but had not yielded the desired results.
“It is a matter of concern that for decades, several efforts on policies made by successive governments to revitalise and improve the education sector have created very little progress.
All over the world, the language of instruction has always been the local language of those countries. If you go to the UK, education is taught in English, and if you go to France, education from the basic level up to the tertiary level is taught in French.
“It is in Nigeria that you teach the language of instruction in English. Our problem has always been that we are teaching our children subjects they ought to have been taught in their local language.
All mathematics, physics, chemistry textbooks, and other subjects should be available in our local languages. There is no way we can catch up with the world if we continue teaching our children a foreign language.
“No primary school teacher should earn less than N250,000 per month, no secondary school teacher should earn less than N500,000 per month, and no university teacher should earn less than 1 million in a month.
“The nation must declare a state of emergency in education. We must commit at least 25 per cent to 30 per cent of our national budget to education. It is high time we paid them adequately so that they can educate our children,” he stated.
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