Discussing the myriad of problems in the education sector is a passionate subject for stakeholders who would love to see the situation reversed. In this interview the Minister of Education Prof Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa'i admits that tackling the twin problems of access and quality is a serious challenge but not insurmountable.
What are your plans to improve on quality in tertiary education?
We have plans in terms of improving quality of education generally from basic to tertiary. Our plan is to ensure that we improve funding and if you look at the issue of funding that Nigeria is not actually funding education, this is not true. The quantum of money is increasing speedily but if you compare with the percentage of the budget that is when we normally say that the percentage is really not high. But if you look at the money in the sector compared to the previous years, especially last year and this year there is an improvement.
What we intend to do is to ensure that we have quality in the sector and we ensure we have more access for people in the sector because what we have been faced with over the years particularly at the tertiary level even though at the lower level we are also having this challenge of mass people outside the school system based on the basic education level, mass literacy in terms of adult and youth and of course the issue of nomadic which without facing squarely we may have problems in terms of achieving Education For All (EFA).
It is a really big challenge which we are now addressing but at the tertiary level we have to look at the issue of quality versus the issue of access at the same time because in as much as we want to improve the quality of the system we cannot allow students outside the system having scored their points in external examinations, through JAMB but we are only able to admit not more than 15 per cent with the rest roaming on the street.
So what we are doing is to now ensure that steadily we improve both quality and access in the sector so that in the next few years we are able to now beat our chest and say we are achieving quality in the sector and we are achieving access in the sector.
I know it can be very challenging because people can say it is contradictory but in the case of Nigeria based on our peculiar circumstance it is a necessity that we really have to pursue. But we need people to be carried on board because it is very easy for people outside the system to say that we are not doing this or we are not doing that. That is why we had presidential summit last year.
So what we intend to do in future is to have a forum that we would invite stakeholders- parents, members of the community, media, the students themselves. Let them come and tell us why are we still having this mass failure? Are you not reading? What are the major challenges? Teachers are we teaching? What are we teaching, why we are failing? Tell us in practical terms what you want to see in the next few years. What of the parents what are they doing?
Most of these students go home then come to school and cheat. What is happening, what about the issue of ethics and values that is why as a result of the summit we had last year the President has a Senior Special Adviser on Values and Ethics. It appears we are losing our values otherwise the issue of examination malpractice should not be a big issue. Government should be able to be responsible to its own challenges but other stakeholders should also play a role and that is when we can collectively be able to now achieve results.
There is a proposal for the National Education Quality Assurance Commission what role is the commission supposed to play?
I may just say one thing here. That Quality Assurance already exists within the Federal Ministry of Education but we wanted it to be out so that we ensure we have a commission but for now we are thinking of maintaining the department for now but enhancing it in terms of ensuring quality delivery. Already we have developed a framework on quality assurance. We have already given some transport to some of the states in the federation in terms of actually not having federal inspectors but carrying state inspectors along. We want to have joint inspection between both of them and they should be going to both state and federal schools so they can use our framework in terms of quality assurance and then let's see what is going on. But we really intend to enhance quality assurance in the country.
At a point the Federal Government wanted to convert two polytechnics and two colleges of education to universities. What is happening?
No it is not so. You know some things can be said in the media but there may not be much truth in them. There may be the move but then the move that we are aware of which I can safely talk about is the issue of Yabatech and Kaduna Polytechnic which has been approved since by the Federal Executive Council to be converted to universities.
What we have done is that we have a committee in place that has been working and it has forwarded recommendations to us and we are looking at those recommendations before we are now comfortable to forward to the President to actually revisit the issues. Of course the approval has been granted but having a new government now we cannot just announce and say we have converted these polytechnics to universities. We have to make sure we have our facts that we can now forward to the president and of course his decision would now be whatever would happen.
Upon resuming as Minister you admitted two areas which you did not tackle during your brief stay in office were technical and vocational education and guidance and counseling. How has this now fitted into your four year plan?
Last year we did not do much on these two critical areas. They are very critical in terms of job creation particularly Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET). We cannot afford to allow it to be left out because once we able to address the problem of children that are on the street or the youth in that case we have to give priority to that particular segment to ensure we have results. We have started working on that.
Then the issue of guidance and counseling we tried to do a summit to reach the students, to guide them. Once we have this guidance and counseling in schools it does not mean only as career guidance but as the way they conduct themselves in terms of approaching their examinations, their values and seriousness with their studies. We have not done it but there is a proposal which we are studying but I hope that this year it would be in practical terms.
All these are issues that would begin to address some part of the sector decay or another. We have to ensure coordination and results.
What are your plans to improve on quality in tertiary education?
We have plans in terms of improving quality of education generally from basic to tertiary. Our plan is to ensure that we improve funding and if you look at the issue of funding that Nigeria is not actually funding education, this is not true. The quantum of money is increasing speedily but if you compare with the percentage of the budget that is when we normally say that the percentage is really not high. But if you look at the money in the sector compared to the previous years, especially last year and this year there is an improvement.
What we intend to do is to ensure that we have quality in the sector and we ensure we have more access for people in the sector because what we have been faced with over the years particularly at the tertiary level even though at the lower level we are also having this challenge of mass people outside the school system based on the basic education level, mass literacy in terms of adult and youth and of course the issue of nomadic which without facing squarely we may have problems in terms of achieving Education For All (EFA).
It is a really big challenge which we are now addressing but at the tertiary level we have to look at the issue of quality versus the issue of access at the same time because in as much as we want to improve the quality of the system we cannot allow students outside the system having scored their points in external examinations, through JAMB but we are only able to admit not more than 15 per cent with the rest roaming on the street.
So what we are doing is to now ensure that steadily we improve both quality and access in the sector so that in the next few years we are able to now beat our chest and say we are achieving quality in the sector and we are achieving access in the sector.
I know it can be very challenging because people can say it is contradictory but in the case of Nigeria based on our peculiar circumstance it is a necessity that we really have to pursue. But we need people to be carried on board because it is very easy for people outside the system to say that we are not doing this or we are not doing that. That is why we had presidential summit last year.
So what we intend to do in future is to have a forum that we would invite stakeholders- parents, members of the community, media, the students themselves. Let them come and tell us why are we still having this mass failure? Are you not reading? What are the major challenges? Teachers are we teaching? What are we teaching, why we are failing? Tell us in practical terms what you want to see in the next few years. What of the parents what are they doing?
Most of these students go home then come to school and cheat. What is happening, what about the issue of ethics and values that is why as a result of the summit we had last year the President has a Senior Special Adviser on Values and Ethics. It appears we are losing our values otherwise the issue of examination malpractice should not be a big issue. Government should be able to be responsible to its own challenges but other stakeholders should also play a role and that is when we can collectively be able to now achieve results.
There is a proposal for the National Education Quality Assurance Commission what role is the commission supposed to play?
I may just say one thing here. That Quality Assurance already exists within the Federal Ministry of Education but we wanted it to be out so that we ensure we have a commission but for now we are thinking of maintaining the department for now but enhancing it in terms of ensuring quality delivery. Already we have developed a framework on quality assurance. We have already given some transport to some of the states in the federation in terms of actually not having federal inspectors but carrying state inspectors along. We want to have joint inspection between both of them and they should be going to both state and federal schools so they can use our framework in terms of quality assurance and then let's see what is going on. But we really intend to enhance quality assurance in the country.
At a point the Federal Government wanted to convert two polytechnics and two colleges of education to universities. What is happening?
No it is not so. You know some things can be said in the media but there may not be much truth in them. There may be the move but then the move that we are aware of which I can safely talk about is the issue of Yabatech and Kaduna Polytechnic which has been approved since by the Federal Executive Council to be converted to universities.
What we have done is that we have a committee in place that has been working and it has forwarded recommendations to us and we are looking at those recommendations before we are now comfortable to forward to the President to actually revisit the issues. Of course the approval has been granted but having a new government now we cannot just announce and say we have converted these polytechnics to universities. We have to make sure we have our facts that we can now forward to the president and of course his decision would now be whatever would happen.
Upon resuming as Minister you admitted two areas which you did not tackle during your brief stay in office were technical and vocational education and guidance and counseling. How has this now fitted into your four year plan?
Last year we did not do much on these two critical areas. They are very critical in terms of job creation particularly Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET). We cannot afford to allow it to be left out because once we able to address the problem of children that are on the street or the youth in that case we have to give priority to that particular segment to ensure we have results. We have started working on that.
Then the issue of guidance and counseling we tried to do a summit to reach the students, to guide them. Once we have this guidance and counseling in schools it does not mean only as career guidance but as the way they conduct themselves in terms of approaching their examinations, their values and seriousness with their studies. We have not done it but there is a proposal which we are studying but I hope that this year it would be in practical terms.
All these are issues that would begin to address some part of the sector decay or another. We have to ensure coordination and results.
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