FG spends N1.3trillion on education in four years, says official

As part of efforts to boost the sector, the Federal Government has spent about N1.3 trillion on education in the last four years to provide critical education infrastructure.

Permanent Secretary in the ministry of education, Sonny Echono who disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the 37th conference of the Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) in Abuja also assured that the Muhammadu Buhari administration was committed to promoting collaboration between the town and the gown.

“The present administration is also placing more emphasis on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), which is borne out of the recognition that TVET is the bedrock of socio-economic growth and development of any nation.”

Making reference to the ministry’s master plan document tagged the “Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP) 2018-2022”, Echono said the government was using it to position Nigerians for global competitiveness.

Meanwhile, Chairman, Ekiti State Universal Basic Education Board a Francisca Aladejana has charged teachers to assess their students based on their individual abilities so as to make informed decisions.

Aladejana in her keynote address at the conference enjoined delegates at the conference to develop specific tools that would help teachers in conducting their assessments well.

“If you leave assessment in the hands of teachers that do not have the tools, then, there is trouble. The former Provost of the Ekiti State College of Education also challenged teachers to do self assessment as they assess their students.

“A teacher should use the outcome of assessment in two major ways. One is to assess himself and be able to plan some remediation in the classroom. Assessment should help the teacher in planning remediation. It should also help a teacher consolidate on the successes if he has done well.”

In line with sticking with individual abilities, Aladejana pointed out that university education is not for everyone.“One of the major issues that still occur in our education system is for everybody to think that they must go to the university. At the end, everybody takes the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) even when they know that they do not have the ability for university education.

They could as well enrol for technical education or vocational training.“So, the idea of being able to sit our students based on individual abilities and advice them that way is very important. Educational assessment may be conducted either in schools or in public examinations,” she added. The conference is aimed at cross fertilising ideas, sharing knowledge and experiences on issues of evaluation and assessment among institutions and organisations towards improving assessment, test and examination in participating countries.