Govt committed to increasing access to education, says Shekarau

THE Federal Government has earmarked the sum of N1.3trn as intervention grant to public universities on the platform of National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) Assessment Programme, just as it remains committed to increasing access to quality education.

 Speaking during an interactive dinner in Abuja recently, the Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who said that the grant was for a five-year period, added that President Goodluck Jonathan’s focus on education was to increase access and build capacity with quality education.

  He said along this line, the government strong desire for improved education is demonstrated by the establishment of 12 new universities in different parts of the country.

  He noted that it was the first time in the history of Nigeria that such number of universities would be established in one fell swoop.

 He said that the NEEDS Assessment intervention was a fall-out of several deliberations between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

  “We have persistent complaints from for our universities about dilapidated laboratories and so on; then the government took the bull by the horn. President Goodluck Jonathan set up a committee to go round the universities on the platform of NEEDS Assessment, which was conducted two years ago.

  “At the end of the assessment, the universities came up with a bill of N1.3 trillion required to address the necessary need in public universities and government accepted it. Since the government cannot dish out N1.3 trillion all at once, there was an agreement between the Federal Government and the leadership of the ASUU that the needs be addressed over a period of five years with a provision of 220bn every year,’’ he said.

  Shekarau said that the first phase of N220 billion was released early in 2014, adding that there were some few universities that had yet to access their share of the grant.

  According to him, the NEEDS intervention is in addition to normal budgetary allocations to universities and TETFund interventions, among others.

 The minister said that similar assessments had been completed for public polytechnics and colleges of education.

  The education minister said that the Federal Government also approved nine new private universities recently while plans were afoot to approve another nine for different parts of the country.

  “If not for technical reasons, another nine would have been approved. When we sort all issues out, they will be approved; this will bring to 18 the number of private universities approved in the last three years,’’ he said.

  Shekarau added that stakeholders in the sector have attested that what the present government had committed into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education surpassed what had been done in the last two decades.

  Earlier, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. MacJohn Nwaobiala, commended the media for effective coverage of the education sector.

  According to him, the media plays an important role in keeping the public informed about government policies and their implementation.