The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has said the ministry is considering a proposal to convert all federal colleges of education across the country to universities of education.
Alausa broke the news before the joint House of Representatives Committees on Education during his ministry’s 2025 budget defence at the National Assembly in Abuja.
The minister said the plan became necessary because many students no longer sought admission into colleges of education.
The minister explained that despite budgetary allocation to the colleges of education, some of them were having less than 1,000 students.
“Do we need these colleges of education? They don’t exist in the United States of America and several other advanced countries. Let us convert them to universities of education,” he said.
Alausa said this year’s budget proposal was hinged on achieving major plank of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s eight priority areas to be implemented through the ministerial deliverables of 2024-2027 in line with the education sector’s roadmap.
The minister said the budget was focused on ensuring “that we provide opportunities for children to return to school, make the teaching and learning environment safer, improve the capacity of teachers to deliver curricular that are contemporary and globally competitive and improve the capacity of our tertiary institutions to produce appropriate human resource base for our national development”.
According to him, there are currently 54 federal universities, including four inter-university centres, 36 federal polytechnics, 32 federal colleges of education and 118 federal unity colleges divided into conventional; sciences; as well as science and technical, dedicated as technical.
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Alausa said this year’s education budget of N2.5 trillion comprises N348.3 billion for the Ministry of Education; N816.7 billion for its parastatals; N226.7 billion for polytechnics; N139.3 for colleges of education; N811.9 billion for universities; N171.6 billion for Unity Colleges, and N3.1 billion for UNESCO Paris.
The Chairman of the House Committee on University Education and Chairman of the joint Committee, Abubakar Hassan Fulata, said the committee would use its constitutional powers to avoid disruptions in academic activities and work towards improving the standard of education in the country.
He said due to insufficient funds to meet competing demands, the ministry and relevant institutions should ensure proper and efficient utilisation of the fund allocated for them.
Fulata warned heads of MDAs against shunning invitations and summons, stressing that the legislature carries out checks in line with the provisions of the constitution to ensure that MDAs do the right things.