Nigerian minister constitutes committee to develop education roadmap

Nigerian’s Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has inaugurated an eight-man committee to develop a roadmap for the country’s education sector.

Inaugurating the committee at the ministry on Tuesday, Mr Mamman, a professor, asked members to help in charting a clearly defined path to develop the country’s education sector.

PREMIUM TIMES has earlier reported on some of the challenges awaiting the education minister as he assumed duty. 

The minister noted that his ministry must address the challenges that have brought setbacks to the sector in the past years.

Priorities

The minister urged the committee members to prioritise addressing issues such as the financial autonomy in tertiary institutions, access and equity, research and innovation, as well as the government-industry-academic nexus.

He said the global competitiveness of the country’s educational system should also be prioritised.

Mr Mamman also listed some of the most important issues to include ensuring that “the curriculum from basic to tertiary level meets the demands of our times and needs of the society.”

“I am happy to note that work had commenced at some level, especially the secondary and tertiary levels. What we need to know is to what extent what we already have to meet contemporary demands of education globally and if not sufficient, how to address them,” he said.

“One thing I must not fail to add is that we must have an education system that embraces technology and moves into a digital future where our education responds to the demands of society. We need to move away from education for its sake but to education for the development not only of the individual but most importantly for the society we live.”

The minister lauded the efforts of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in addressing the infrastructural deficit in the country’s schools.

He said the roadmap should be in tandem with the vision of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

He said: “On education specifically, our president has declared his commitment and as a priority, among other missions, to see about 10.5 million Nigerian out-of-school-children retrained with skills that will make them stand on their own.

“We will, therefore, need a clear roadmap and framework that will guide the ministry achieve these goals.

“I do appreciate that the timeframe of four weeks might look too tight but I am counting on your expertise, the availability of preliminary work done by the ministry in the review of the just concluded strategic plan, your commitment and patriotic zeal.”

He added that the members of the committee were chosen based on their antecedents and involvement in the education sector in the past.

Members of the Committee

The committee is to be chaired by a former Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Nuru Yakubu, a professor, while Joseph Achede, an official of the ministry is expected to serve as secretary.

Other members of the committee include a former head of the Enugu Campus of the Nigerian Law School, Ernest Ojukwu; the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, Ismail Junaidu; Sa’ad Umar, a former Director General of the Independent National Electoral Commission Electoral Institute, all professors. Others include Shulamite Paul, Garba Ibrahim, and Hindatu Abdullahi.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe