… Promises to Align Education to Needs of Nigerians
By Ngozi Nwankwo
In a bid to align education system to the needs of Nigerians, the Federal Government has reversed the controversial 18-year entry age for university education to 16- year.
The new Minister of Education, Dr. Morufu Alausa disclosed this while briefing journalists upon assuming office on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, what led to that initial decision was the way the National Policy on Education was designed.
”We will not be going forward with the 18-years admission benchmark. We will go with 16 years and we are going to meet with JAMB and others on that.
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”There will also be exception for the gifted students. 18-years is not part of our policy again,” he said.
Alausa stated that the policy was detrimental to the federal government’s efforts to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country and was not sustainable for the education sector.
While promising to study and review the newly established curriculum to reflect the need of Nigeria, the Minister also disclosed resolve to redirect focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM.
He said Nigerian government would invest heavily on vocational to help students development skills for employability.
” We will get private sector, artisans for the vocational training. In fact, Nigeria education will invest heavily on vocational,” said Alausa.
Reacting on Out-of- School children, the
Minister said the ministry has created a benchmark how to tackle the challenge of Out-of-School Children.
According to him, the ministry will collaborate with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to provide conditional cash transfers as incentives for students to increase school enrollment.
He also mentioned that nutritional programmes would be introduced to support students’ health, thereby enhancing human capital development.
Alausa also said the withdrawal of certificates obtained from Benin Republic and Togo remains as it would help eliminate fake certificates from the system.
Speaking on finding lasting solution to the struggles between Tertiary institutions unions and the federal government, the Minister assured that the federal government, under the president Bola Ahmed Tinubu will meet all the agreements with Tertiary institutions unions to end incessant strikes.