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Tag: MINISTER OF EDUCATION

  • Unachukwu lauds minister of education’s one child, two skills initiative

    Unachukwu lauds minister of education’s one child, two skills initiative

    An expert and seasoned entrepreneur, Nnamdi Felix Unachukwu, Founder/ Senior Consultant, Business Matters Incubators (BMI) Finishing School has lauded the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman for taking the initiative to implement one child, two skills on education.

    Unachukwu said: “This is a great move and it is what Nigeria needs now, we in BMI through our Catch Them Young Initiative have been advocating for functional education where we revamp the old curriculum and bring in a new set of tools that will help the students to learn skills, learn how to stand on their own, build self-efficacy and self-reliance.

    “In the last meeting of the National Council on Education, the Council adopted the new curriculum that will soon be made public. From the statement of the Minister, we learned that every child upon graduation from primary and secondary school must have learned two skills.

    “We are commending this effort by the Honorable Minister and the Ministry of Education, the research team, and the National Council on Education for adopting it in their last meeting, and we are encouraging them not to relent until it is fully implemented. We are also adding our voices to say that implementing this new curriculum requires every stakeholder’s participation including teachers and parents, as this is the best thing that can happen to our society.

    “The earlier we start, we’re going to contain the problems that are experienced by our youth today who went through the old system and are coming out without a job and turning into a problem for this entire society. While the national youth confab as announced by the president will be tackling the issues that the youths of today are facing, we are looking at 10 years down the line, there won’t be issues like that, if this new curriculum is properly implemented with skill acquisition and entrepreneurship well represented in the curriculum.

    “Nigeria will have experts in all kinds of skills. We will start exporting skills, and Nigeria has the potential of making more, generating more revenues from skilled labourers who can export these skills while living in Nigeria, like what is obtained in India, where they make billions of dollars every year through skill export. We are encouraging the Ministry of Education to walk the talk and not to announce it without implementation as this excitement might go down the drain if not pushed.

    “For this implementation to work, the public and private sector has to participate maximally, it is not just the education of a whiteboard, it has to be hands-on, and some TV programs that are sponsored by corporate organizations, have to be geared towards establishing students. Let there be competition, not just what is in vogue today, but the competition that will be healthy for students to display skills and vocational acquisitions, also it will be good for companies to open their doors for students to do IT, even at a young age, and a lot has to happen in the area of certain sponsorships.

    Read Also: Unachukwu heads NBA conference publicity sub-committee

    “The companies and state governments should begin now to build hubs, where students will do the practicals, and the alumni association of schools should go to those schools and help them build labs, where the students will begin to learn practicals from the lab, so that we are not looking at just academic work, but a hands-on, that is my advice. This is the time to fund education more, for a better tomorrow.

    “We’re also encouraging the federal government to support this initiative of getting the children to learn skills or adopting the new curriculum when it comes upstream. We may not know what is fully contained in the new curriculum, however for the minister to have announced that upon every graduation a child would have learned two skills, shows that Nigeria stands a great opportunity. We are adding our voice so that they make sure that it’s not just learning the skills, but creating a mindset of nation-building in the children so that while they are learning the skills, they are becoming entrepreneurs who will cause wealth creation in our country, in our nation.”

    Engr. Nnamdi Unachukwu also appreciates the Education Transformation Agenda of Mr. President designed to comprehensively overhaul the education sector to ensure quality learning, skill development, access, and equity.

  • Jail for offending parents?

    The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has warned that the federal government is ready to send parents of school-age children, not enrolled, to jail. At a recent press conference, Adamu affirmed that it is a crime for parents not to enrol their children in school under the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme.

    He also announced that the Buhari administration had spent, in the last four years, N350 billion on various aspects of UBE, adding that states which fail to provide their counterpart funding may start having their federal allocations deducted at source.

    The focus on jailing parents for not enrolling their children in school smacks of putting the cart before the horse. If after 19 years of UBE, there are still over 13 million children that should be in school but are not, it becomes logical for the Federal Government to take a holistic view of the laudable scheme, designed to make every child literate and numerate.

    It is, therefore, important to tie, more holistically, analysis of problems of UBE to identification of solutions and goals of the scheme; and to methods for achieving goals via implementation, before rushing to prosecute parents who fail to enroll children in school.

    Federal and State Education planners should consider the obvious problems of providing free education for every child up to nine years of schooling, along with understanding the role of parents in the success of UBE. For example, why were there quotas put on UBE enrolment for many years in the life of the scheme?

    How much research has been done to understand perception of parents about the quality of UBE schools in different parts of the country? In which states and schools does UBE function favourably enough to attract parents and even children to UBE classrooms? What challenges face the states with respect to planning expansion of access, in the context of absence of formal registration of birth and death in the country, etc?

    These questions are not to suggest that parents and guardians be left out of the task of encouraging children to enrol and stay in school. But full awareness of emotional, physical, psychological, and aesthetic dimensions of schooling need to exist and be seen to exist by parents and their children. Education and literacy are steps toward modernity. It may, therefore, be counterproductive for children to be put, as they often are across the country, in schools that even look worse than their homes—roofless, windowless, lacking modern toilet facilities, and basic learning tools.

    Certainly, parents and guardians who deliberately exploit children for unpaid labour; or traffic in children for profit, need to be prosecuted.  But governments—federal, state, and local—ought to look deeper and harder into implementation of UBE across the states, before heaping the problems of under-enrolment on parents. In short, we need to know where all the problems are before we start apportioning blame.

    Any effort to make UBE function properly requires that all other conditions, apart from ensuring positive attitudes of parents to education of their young ones, are in place: guaranteed free access to school or availability of space for every child that wants to enrol; provision of conducive environment for sustaining children’s attention; provision of qualified staff for early childhood education; good teacher-student ratio; implementation in all states of free feeding for pupils; etc.

    It is common knowledge that enrolment and retention have increased in states with school meal programme: Osun, Kaduna, and many others. It is only after there is empirical evidence that access, equity, and quality are assured for all children, that the government should resort to jailing parents, who fail to enroll their children in school.

    But the decision of the Federal Government to deduct from statutory allocations to states, the latter’s counterpart funds to complement federal matching grants, is a rational policy. Many of the problems facing effective implementation of UBE are traceable to failures of states to fulfill their part of the bargain. However, the UBE Commission must ensure that states do their parts in full, before parents and guardians are prosecuted.

    Further, such deductions-at-source ought to be covered by proper legislation, to prevent litigious states from frustrating the Federal Government’s efforts to achieve goals of UBE. Making public education free and compulsory does not have to start with threatening to send uncooperative parents and guardians to jail.  Rather, it should follow provision of all that is needed to attract and sustain attention of children in the new environment of schooling.

    We believe making free and compulsory schooling for nine years effective is the first step in moving Nigeria to the next level: the group of countries that ensure that no child is left out of free and compulsory access to primary and secondary public education in the 21st century.

     

  • 67 Nigerians awarded Commonwealth scholarships in three years, says minister

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said that between 2015 and 2018, over 67 Nigerians were awarded the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) to study in other Commonwealth countries.

    Adamu disclosed this at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja to celebrate this year’s Commonwealth Day.

    The 2019 Commonwealth Day has “A Connected Commonwealth” as its theme.

    The minister also disclosed that scholars from other Commonwealth countries were currently studying in Nigerian tertiary institutions under the CSFP.

    According to him, Nigeria has maintained Commonwealth scholarship awards to member countries since its inception.

    He said: “The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP), was instituted in 1959 to give practical expression to the declared intention of Commonwealth countries to contribute to the provision of high-level education.

    “Since its inception, Nigeria has been operating as an awarding country. She maintains scholarship awards to other countries of the Commonwealth such as Sierra Leone.

    “As a receiving/nominating country, Nigeria receives awards from other Commonwealth member countries such as UK, New Zealand, and Australia.”

    The minister noted that there was need to assist every Nigerian child to have access to quality education.

    Adamu said that the coming together of countries under the Commonwealth, contributed to the provision of high-quality education and training, through the sharing of resources and facilities.

    He stated that the Commonwealth nations have been cooperating in the pursuit of their common goals and shared values in the area of education, trade, security, and governance.

    The minister added: “The theme for this year’s celebration emphasizes the need to work together to protect our natural environment and the ocean that we share.”

    Also, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, urged Nigerians to take part in the event to celebrate the connectivity and inclusiveness of our people.

    Echono said the Commonwealth nations had 16 charters which spelt out the core values and principles which have been defined and strengthened at different stages throughout the Commonwealth’s history.

    The permanent secretary said: “It upholds and reaffirms the Commonwealth’s commitment to democracy, human rights, peace and security, good governance and protecting the environment.

    “Providing access to health, education, food and shelter, gender equality, recognizing the needs of small and vulnerable states and the important role civil society plays for all people of the Commonwealth.”

    The Commonwealth Day is celebrated annually on the second Monday in March.

    The Commonwealth, a voluntary association of independent sovereign states of some countries under the defunct British Empire, has 53 members with about 2.4 billion people.

    This year’s celebration marks the 70th anniversary of the formation of the Commonwealth.

     

     

  • Long overdue

    •Nigeria deserves a truly modern national library

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has indicated that approval is being sought for N50billion to complete the National Library headquarters in Abuja. In his own words: “Efforts are on to complete the National Library headquarters. You may have been aware that the project was awarded in 2006 at a total cost of N8billion. By 2013, the project cost reviewed upward to N18billion. Work was, however, stopped by the end of 2013 due to poor funding.”

    Although this announcement by the minister came in the middle of electioneering, it is still welcomed. However, some of the efforts to complete the library ought to have been made earlier, especially as soon as Nigeria recovered officially from recession in 2017. But, it is better late than never.

    The headquarters of the National Library moved to Abuja in 1995. For almost one quarter of a century, the library has been functioning in a rented facility. The constraints of operating in a rented facility not designed for the varied functions of a national library must have affected the effectiveness of the library in the last 23 years. It is, therefore, not surprising that the minister sounded sanguine in giving progress report, even at a time of high-wattage electioneering, on a matter that should have been of great concern to citizens.

    Like the minister, we are enthusiastic about hearing an irrevocable verdict on government’s commitment to complete the library building.

    Although it may sound fastidious to complain now about failure to complete the building while costs were less prohibitive between 1995 and now, we still welcome the decision of the Federal Ministry of Education to return to this important national assignment. A fully-formed and well-functioning national library is no longer a luxury for any nation in an ethos that is now globally referred to as the knowledge society. So, the contractor that is hired to complete the building should be made to know how urgent the project has become.

    Government’s insistence on adherence to deadlines for delivery of the building by the contractor will save the country a lot of direly needed public funds, such as must have been lost on account of indecisiveness on the parts of governments between 2006 and 2019, during which the cost of completing the building rose from N8billion in 2006 to N18billion in 2013, and to N50billion at the beginning of 2019. To avoid further increase in cost, there should be no further delay on completion of the building.

    National libraries are major cultural institutions in all societies that value generation and distribution of knowledge for empowerment of the state and citizens. Given the importance of Nigeria in Africa, the national library must not only be aesthetically pleasing to users and visitors as a fitting reflection of the country’s commitment to culture and knowledge, government must also commit to stocking and equipping the library to serve the purpose for which it is built.

    Beyond completion of the physical part of the library, there should be adequate provision to stock the library with analog and digital collections to reflect the changes that technology has brought to improvement of library operations and promotion of literacy in other countries. Sincere efforts need to be made to employ well qualified staff for all areas of modern library operations and management, ranging from capacious reading section for citizens interested in research and reading, inter-library loans to other libraries in the country, professional curating of archives for rare collections to well-coordinated promotion of reading culture and literacy. Further, for the purpose of safety and protection of the high investment in the national library, the building ought to be fire proof.

    It is also good for each state to have a functioning branch of the national library, to stimulate and sustain reading and research culture across the country.

     

  • FG slashes JAMB, NECO, SSCE exams fees 

    The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday reduced the examination registration fees for the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Senior Secondary and Basic Education Certificate.

    This was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu at the end of the FEC meeting.

    Read Also:I was shocked JAMB could generate N9bn – Oloyede

    He said that the JAMB fee for the UTME will reduce from N5, 000 to N3, 500, the Senior Secondary School fee charge by NECO will reduce from N11, 350 to N9, 850 and the Basic Education certificate by NECO will reduce from N5, 500 to N4, 000.

    According to him the new charges would become effective from January, 2019.

    Noting that most of the past high examination fees were unnecessary, he said that they were siphoned into private pockets.

    He also pointed out that the agency is not a revenue generating agency and its focus should not be to generate money.

    “In response to the yearnings by parents, the President directed the Ministry to look into it.” He said

    The Minister also said that the reduced fees have nothing to do with the forthcoming general elections.

  • FG lauds Obaseki’s education reform

    The federal government has commended the giant strides of the Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, in the education sector, specifically the policy options that have created over 7,000 digital teachers across the state and the high school attendance rate in the state.

    Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu, gave the commendation on Monday at the 2018 Alaghodaro Summit in Benin City, the Edo State, capital, an event organised to mark the second-year anniversary of the Obaseki-led administration.

    Adamu who was represented by the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, restated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s commitment to sustaining the funding of the basic education sub-sector through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

    He commended the giant strides of the Edo State Government and the appreciable impact made in the basic education sector in the last two years.

    Adamu said that of the about 10 million out-of-school children in the country, Edo State has one of the lowest of that number.

    “We should not forget the challenges facing the basic education sub-sector in Nigeria with over 10 million out-of-school children. Edo State has one of the lowest numbers of out-of-school children in Nigeria,” he said.

    The minister said the success made so far by the Obaseki-led administration is commendable and holds a great promise of moving the education sector to a greater height.

    He assured that the federal government  would continue to support Edo and other state governments in meeting their basic education obligations.

    Adamu called on state governments to access their counterpart funds through UBEC as the federal government has made huge amount of money available to develop the basic education sub-sector in all the states.

    The minister urged state governments to access and utilise the funds to transform the nation’s basic education sector.

     

  • We can’t meet ASUU’s demand now – FG

    The Federal Government, on Monday, said it doesn’t have the financial power to meet the demands of the Academy Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    The government accused the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, of making bogus promises to the union during a period of oil boom.

    ASUU has embarked on an indefinite strike to press home the implement of 2009 agreement with the government and other demands.

    Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who addressed reporters at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Education, explained that the crash in the prices of oil globally had affected the economic fortunes of Nigeria.

    This, he explained, had dire consequences on all sectors of the economy, including education.

    The minister said: “I must say that this is difficult to reconcile with all the efforts and positive achievements we have been able to make.

    “Let me begin by saying that the Issues necessitating this strike dates back to 2009 when the then government of late President Umaru Musa Yar Adua signed an agreement with the ASUU on funding of the federal universities in the country.

    “The agreement provided for funding of Universities to the tune of N1.3trillion over a period of six years. It is instructive to know that Nigeria was experiencing the oil boom at that time. It was therefore expected that government will be able to meet the terms of agreement.

    “However, international oil prices crashed in subsequent years thereby throwing the country into economic hardship, at the inception of this administration the country’s economic fortunes worsened, nose diving into recession, with dire consequences on all sectors of the economy, including education.

    “We exited recession not too long ago, and we are just beginning to recover from the consequences of low oil prices, which are happily beginning to pick up.

    “If this trend continues, definitely, the education sector will also improve, in other words, the well-being of the education sector and any other sector of the country’s economy is a function of the international oil prices, this is the stack reality for now which all of us must acknowledge and accept.”

    The minister appealed to both parents, ASUU and students to exercise restraint in their response to the education sector.

    He said the union should be mindful of the fact that other sector of the economy were competing with similar financial needs.

    Adamu said: “Against this background I want to appeal to all Nigerian parents, students and in particular women and men of ASUU to continue to exercise restraint in terms of their response to the plight of the education sector.

    “We must also be mindful that there are other sectors with similar competing needs, if our universities produce graduates, such graduates must work in other sectors of the economy which must also be supported by government.”

    ASUU on Monday embarked on an indefinite strike after its National Executive Council NEC meeting held in Akure, Ondo state, on Sunday.

    ASUU’s current strike is hinged on delays in implementing the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the government agreed to in 2017, including to compel government to conclude the renegotiation of other agreements also collectively reached in 2009.

    National President of ASUU, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi while announcing the commencement of the strike had re-echoed the insincerity of government in meeting their demands.

    Ogunyemi had said: “Having waited patiently for action and meaningful negotiation with reasonable men using the principle of collective bargaining that ASUU at its NEC meeting of 3rd and 4th November 2018 at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) resolved to resume the nationwide strike action it suspended in September 2017 with immediate effect.

    “This strike will be total comprehensive and indefinite. Our members shall withdraw their services until government fully implement all outstanding issues as contained in the MOA of 2017, and concludes the renegotiation of the 2009 agreements.

    “We have today been subjected to 20 years of continued re-colonization under alleged democracy in which all that the ruling circle have been regrouping among themselves in their various faction they called political parties.”

    The ASUU President had also buttressed the necessity of the strike when he said the release of a paltry N20 billion revitalisation fund was despite the fact that the same government released N1.3 trillion to a distressed bank recently.

    Ogunyemi has also argued that the government was not interested in public universities as the children of the top politicians and rich men in the society patronised private universities at the detriment of public institutions.

  • FG releases result of admission into unity schools

    The Federal Government has released the results for the 101 unity schools in the country.

    Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, approved the release of admission into Junior Secondary School 1 of the 101 Federal Government Colleges.

    Adamu, in a statement issued by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Sonny Echono, said the release of results followed the 2018 selection exercise for placement of qualified candidates into Junior Secondary School One (JSS1) which took place in Owerri, Imo State.

    Read Also:http://staging.thenationonlineng.net/fg-releases-unity-schools-admission-list/

    The statement said the selection exercise employed the national merit criteria of 60 percent with a cut-off score of 146 and above, and equality of state of 30 percent of the colleges’ carrying capacity.

    The statement reads: “Due to the effect of insecurity in the North East and North West zones of the country which affected the filling of the colleges capacity, the Minister has also approved for supplementary examination to be held tentatively on 11th August, 2018, for such colleges to enable them fill their vacancies.

    “Candidates are therefore requested to check their result at the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja all Federal Government Colleges and also online at http://www.education.gov.ng releases or INTERVIEW TEST.”

     

  • Don’t charge more than N2,000 for post-UTME, FG warns tertiary institutions

    The Federal Government on Tuesday warned that it would sanction any tertiary institution which charges  more than N2,000 for  Post-UTME.

    The Minister of  Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu,  gave the warning at the ongoing Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB)  Policy Meeting on Admissions into  Tertiary Institutions in Gbongan, Osun.

    Adamu said :  “At the 2017 policy meeting, I endorsed that any institution which was interested in conducting any form of Post-UTME screening could do so, but that the gross charge for the screening should not be more than N2,000.

    ” Once again, let me caution heads of  tertiary institutions that it would not be tolerated for any institution to charge any fee beyond the approved two thousand naira (N2,000).

    ” Firmer sanctions than those of last session shall be applied to cases of violation,” the minister said.

    Adamu, however, said that the policy meeting  would continue  to be the forum where the agenda, guidelines, modalities, and timelines would be set for the purpose of admissions to universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education in Nigeria.

    Read also : JAMB releases results of rescheduled UTME

    “Therefore, no admission to any tertiary institutions should be announced before the policy meeting.

    ” It is appreciated that the meeting is being held early enough for the commencement of the new session.

    “The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board should ensure that the policy meeting is now held not later than June every year”, Adamu said.

    In his remarks, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Is’haq Oloyede,  said UTME  scores were  not the cut off marks to gain admission into universities.

    Oloyede said the marks were just minimum scores, adding that there were other assessments for consideration before a candidate could gain admission into tertiary institutions.

    He also said that the number of candidates that were involved in examination malpractices in UTME had reduced drastically.

  • The Nigerian classroom presently has bigger problems

    Recently, the Minister of Education was said to have complained that the teacher population in Nigeria was ‘grossly’ inadequate for its future needs. He said this against the backdrop of concerns for the country’s population explosion which has been projected would shoot up by millions in a number of years. He was thus worried that the present number of teachers would be highly inadequate and the curriculum would be outdated.

    I immediately thought that I would we rather tried to solve our present problems before tackling the future ones. This column, and tonnes of other writings from concerned columnists and citizens, have gone to great pains to point out the various problems bedevilling our educational system presently. Believe me, the future is not reckoned with yet. Our present needs are actually more worrisome.

    I guess it was that kind of concern that prompted the Kaduna State governor, Mr. El-Rufai, to cause a stir in the educational scene some time ago, when he threatened to fire over twenty thousand teachers at once for incompetence. I think he later stepped that action down when he realised the same thing that our minister is just now realising: there is a severe drought of teachers. I know, I know, the governor claimed to be able to replace them within a short time but seriously, the possibility of that happening is still very doubtful. One could tell the level of his frustration though.

    Anyway, I bet you the Kaduna State governor was not alone. Indeed, many states appeared to have been ready to follow suit if the action of sacking thousands of teachers had been followed through. Had they done that, then they would all have come to a sad realisation: the ones they hoped to replace the sacked teachers with would be no better. It would have been a full circle brought round: plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. I guess they all decided to live with the safer option: the devils you know are better than the saints you don’t. The better ones are yet out there, unseen.

    Now, we come to the fact that even the population of teachers, as it is, is not sufficient to tackle the educational needs of the present, not to mention those of the next few years. At present, public schools are grossly undervalued in every aspect. Let us take public primary schools as an example. According to reports, public primary schools in Nigeria collectively house over twenty million pupils and the teachers who cope with them are only a little above half a million. This means that presently, teachers are handling more than their fair share of pupils at each contact period, perhaps over forty as against the recommended under twenty.

    Now, this is just on the average. I have seen and heard of classrooms where the teacher has no sitting space, no pacing space, only standing space. I have seen and heard of ‘class arms’ reaching as far as ‘E’ in some schools. I have seen and heard of schools where the average mentioned above is only a mirage, and the classroom population is a consternation and an astonishment. These are real and present dangers.

    All of these classroom problems naturally come with their attendant implications. A classroom of screaming children is bad enough, an overpopulated classroom of screaming children is unbearable even for the average even-tempered person. To handle such, the person needs the patience of Job (to out-wait a thousand crying episodes), the strength of Samson (to break off a thousand fights per day), the wisdom of Solomon (to see through their thousand and one tall tales) and the running savvy of the rabbit. This last one means s/he has to be able to outrun his/her charges as they fly around the class, school or neighbourhood.

    The above mentioned are least among the problems; indeed, the Nigerian classroom has bigger ones. As of now, dear reader, I understand that many public primary school teachers across the country teach their pupils only in the vernacular as the pupils, even in the advanced classes, have no inkling of English, the language of the common entrance examinations. A researcher who tried to compare the rate of understanding between private and public schools’ pupils found out that the mode of communication in public schools did not even give room for any measurement. So, in the matter of communication: Vernacular Rules, Ok.

    We have talked about the problems of overpopulation and communication; now, let us add the problem of poor learning environment. Most classrooms in the public schools hold little or no attraction for learning for the child-learner. Classrooms are not made conducive for the learner. Public school children are lucky to have rooms shielding them from rain, sun and moon instead of trees. They are lucky to have cement floors under their feet in place of grass or mud. They are lucky to have wooden chairs and desks to sit and write on rather than cement blocks, felled trees or makeshift seaters. Many classrooms are open to the elements; and so are their occupants.

    Then we come to the problem of poor remunerations. I believe that Nigerian teachers are among the most poorly paid in the world. Perhaps, it might be that they are among the most unqualified and the most resistant to training and retraining, I don’t know. Perhaps, it might be due to political manipulations. I don’t know. What is known is that many times, teachers are not paid or are poorly paid in spite of having this large work schedule of holding down a class of highly restless tykes. It is also known that many times, they don’t do the work. It is also known that many times, teachers are resistant to moves to improve them or make themselves available for improvement.

    In many countries in Europe where education is valued, teachers are among the best paid workers. There is in my phone right now a joke credited to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, who was said to have retorted to demands for salary increase by other professionals that she could not pay them higher than she pays teachers because those were the ones who taught them! But then, their system ensures that each teacher is worth his salt, pepper and all. In short, only the best are hired at all levels, and high performance is demanded of all.

    It remains for us to say now that Nigeria has always followed the line of least workability either by ignorance, error or poor judgement. I suspect the latter but it could also easily be the former ones. Anything that smacks of hard work is anathema to us. We are more interested in hard pay, I think. Therefore, I do believe that finding out how to evolve a good system can sometimes be beyond us.

    This has not been a treatise on public primary education in Nigeria. It has only been a little reaction to a word credited to the minister of education. The reaction has only focused on the public primary school system in Nigeria to show that we can build a sure foundation to counter future problems when we solve the present problems of overpopulation, poor communicative abilities, poor remuneration, and poor school environment, among many others. Public secondary schools would surely constitute a whole new kettle of fish.

    Government’s ready response to these problems has always been negative – due, it says, to lack of funds. Yet, we all watch silently as national assembly members award themselves unearthly emoluments and cart away our resources to foreign countries. It stands to reason that when we are able to retrieve these fat emoluments from the national assembly, we will probably have something to run our schools with. Until then.