By Muhammad Bello
The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to the goal of
Education For All (EFA).
President Goodluck Jonathan made this known Saturday at the national
flag-off of instructional materials to basic education institutions in
the country held in Uyo, the Akwa-Ibom State capital.
President Jonathan also reiterated that his administration’s efforts at
national transformation would only achieve the desired results if they
were predicated on the provision of quality education at all levels and
for the development of human resources in the country.
In this regard, he stated the Federal Government has redoubled its
efforts in policy making and implementation of tangible innovations in
education that served as catalyst for other sectors of the economy
through appropriate and sustainable reforms in structure, institutional
arrangement and governance as well as funding and resource mobilisation.
A statement by the spokesperson to the Vice President, Alhaji Sani
Umar, quoted the president as saying “In order to compliment the current
reforms in the sector, our investment in education has remained a
priority in-spite of other competing demands.
“We have made significant efforts to address issues that could
otherwise continue to pose threats to our desire to offer the citizenry
the necessary knowledge and skill to effectively participate in our
development efforts. This has translated into the establishment of nine
new federal universities with increased funding for the existing ones.”
The president furthermore stated that his administration has introduced
innovative programmes like the Almajiri Education, Girl-Child Education
Initiative, and out-of-the –school Boy Child Education to ensure that
no child suffered due to his/her background.
Jonathan affirmed that the supply of textbooks and other instructional
materials has been receiving prominence in his administration’s basic
education delivery approaches.
He said that the goal of the exercise was to ensure a 1:1 ratio of pupil to book in all subjects taught in all public basic education institutions and that information reaching him had indicated that the ratio has been attained in core subject areas at primary school level in many states of the federation.
He said that the goal of the exercise was to ensure a 1:1 ratio of pupil to book in all subjects taught in all public basic education institutions and that information reaching him had indicated that the ratio has been attained in core subject areas at primary school level in many states of the federation.
While congratulating the direct beneficiaries, he enjoined parents and
teachers to utilise the resources for the benefit of the children.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Education, Professor Rukayyatu Rufai,
stated that education was key to the Transformation Agenda of the
Federal Government, which was aimed at transforming the society and
ensuring global competitiveness. In this regard, the minister further
averred that the Jonathan administration developed a four-year strategic
plan for the development of the education sector with the goals of
“access” and “quality”.
According to the minister, this occasion was part of the drive towards
enhancing quality and that access to education has been greatly enhanced
through the implementation of various programmes like the Almajiri
Education, the Girls Education, Access Campaign, Back-to-School, amongst
others.
“As access improves, our attention is also on the quality of education
provided to our children. It is for this reason that attention is
focused on the provision of those resources that would help to enhance
the teaching and learning experience of our schools,” said Rufai.
The minister also stated that in the past year, over N10 billion has
been expended in the provision of books and other instructional
materials to the basic education sector in Nigeria.
On his part, the host governor, Godswill Akpabio, expressed his
gratitude to the federal government for the choice of his state to
flag-off this year’s exercise. He noted that the best investment any
government could make was in the education of its children and that the
federal government has taken education as a major priority area in the
country.
The distribution of instructional materials to basic education
institutions is a UBE Intervention Fund programme to basic public
institutions in Nigeria launched in 2009. Over 96,346,675 books on
Mathematics, English Language, Basic Science & technology and Social
Studies for primary schools; and library materials for Junior Secondary
Schools have been distributed to public basic education institutions
across the country.
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