By Olawale Lamina
The Tinubu Media Support Group,TMSG, has expressed deep conviction of the fact that the creative initiatives of President Bola Tinubu’s administration in the nation’s education sector will serve as a herbinger for fresh breath of air towards an improved standard.
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In a joint statement signed by the Chairman of the group, Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo, they made the disclosure that the initiatives could be likened to a building block for progressive and modern education system in the country.
Statement also emphasized carefully that,”The education sector is one that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration had since inception been quietly reviving for utmost efficiency in the last one year. Even the perennial agitation of tertiary institutions work force have been on the decline resulting in peace on the campuses. Calls for strikes are also dying down.
“This we attribute to federal government’s decision to remove universities and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System IPPIS, payment platform which has since its introduction in 2006 been a source of acrimony between the unions and various administrations.
“But what may end up cementing President Tinubu’s place in history in this sector is the Nigerian Education Loan Fund ,NELF, which started only a few days ago, but has received well over 60,000 applications from students of federal government institutions.
“We invite Nigerians to note that the President had delayed the take off of the interest-free student loan scheme to ensure that it also covers students who may be more interested in skills acquisition than University education.”
The group stressed that the ultimate intention of the initiative was aimed at ensuring a sustainable higher education and functional skill development for all Nigerian students and youths, with a view to ensuring that indigent students do not drop out of school as a result of financial challenge.
“About funding, the group acknowledged the TETFUND’s highest ever disbursement of N643.4bn to tertiary institutions since inception of President Tinubu saw the nation’s Colleges of Education getting a minimum of N1.3bn while individual Polytechnics and Universities received N1.6bn and N1.9bn respectively.
TMSG underscored the improvement brought about in teaching, research, and overall development of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions based on the quantum of funds made available.
Similarly, the group noted that the initiatives provided opportunities for staff beneficiaries to take part in conferences, both locally and internationally, besides helping to fund the writing of textbooks and catering for payments of honorarium to supervisors in education related programmes. And, among other impacts,it noted that the funds had a major improvement on the development of tertiary institutions, staff, and students.
The TMSG stressed that the Tinubu administration has no plans to ignore the issue of out-of-school children and applauded the need to boost secondary school education.
“Like the President, we consider the situation of out-of-school children unacceptable and are aware that he has approved system-wide policies that will also reduce the number of school-age children roaming the streets.
“The approved policies are captured as DOTS, an acronym for: Data Repository, Out-of-School Children Education, Teacher Training & Development, and Skill Development & Acquisition.
“The Tinubu administration is making efforts to reduce the menace of out-of-school children in its ongoing intervention on non-formal education which has seen grants released to 312 Integrated Qur’anic and Tsangaya Education (IQTE) Centers in 24 States and the FCT. These grants were given the construction of 419 classrooms, 66 recitation halls, 25 recitation shades, 140 offices, 27 hostels, and 225 VIP toilets,” the group stated.
The group noted that a total of 2,000,000 out-of-school children otherwise known as Almajiris had been enrolled in basic schools as well as in Arabic literacy programme offering vocational training.
“And, regarding further steps taken by the government to boost education, the TMSG explained that, “Also, we want to place on record that Vice President Kashim Shettima was recently in Bauchi where he launched a multi-year Accelerated Senior Secondary Education Programme (ASSEP) which is meant to pave way for the overhaul of school infrastructure and the facilitation of modernised curricula and an integrated virtual learning technology.
“The initiative is a major policy drive to bridge the gaping educational divide in the country, with the North-East region as the starting point.
“We also know that 10,000 teachers and educators have been trained in preparation for the past establishment and launch of 37 smart schools, one in each state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
“In addition, a National Education Repository and Data Bank is also in the works for the purpose of collecting, collating, and warehousing all education records from 1932 through a dedicated website.
But while the group emphasized that there was already an approval from Mr. President for a comprehensive national census of schools, teachers, and students in the country to address the lack of coordinated data critical for effective educational sector planning, the group acknowledged decision by the Education Minister, Professor Tahir Mamman, that “the data bank and census will go a long way to enhancing decision-making and policy formulation because the data collated will aid evidence-based planning and help identify areas where improvement is required.”
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