The Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, is optimistic of transforming the sector by ensuring all Nigerians have access to quality education and also the investment in tertiary education by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan supersede what was invested in the sector in the past two decades.
The Minister made this remark while speaking during an interactive session with reporters in Kano, said in line with President Jonathan’s transformational agenda on education, the federal government has improved both access to and quality of education in Nigeria.
He said over 60, 000 university lecturers were sponsored to study abroad, adding that 8 more federal universities were established, 127 Tsangaya primary schools, 49 boarding secondary schools, 6 Polytechnics and 4 Federal Colleges of Education were built across the country.
He however frowned at the inability of universities to access the Tertiary Education Fund, set up in 2011, as the federal government approved N1.3 trillion for the revitalization of Nigerian universities.
Despite having a budget of N493 million allotted, education has been on a decline in Nigeria, with a string of poor results, most notably in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), where about 70 per cent of candidates failed this year.
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