BY SIMEON NWAKAUDU
This year alone, the nation has witnessed two sad
developments in the education sector aimed at discouraging Nigerian
children from benefiting from the well-articulated plan of the Jonathan
administration to ensure that no Nigerian child is denied access to
quality education.
The first was the vicious murder of male students
at the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe State. The second is
the very unfortunate abduction of 243 female students from the
Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. These sad developments
that have led to negative press for the country must not divert the
attention of Nigerians from the very wonderful progress the
administration has made in its quest to right the wrongs in a sector
that has been neglected for decades. President Jonathan’s commitment to
educational development has been one of the most progressive highlights
of his administration.
The terrorists and their sponsors are aware of this fact, hence the
desperate efforts to check the movement on the fast lane. These
desperate attacks on educational institutions are planned by desperate
persons afraid that their captives are being set free by policies and
projects of an administration that has an academic at the helm of
affairs.
Redefining education in the North
Never in the history of this nation has an administration taken very
deliberate steps to address the extreme educational imbalance in the
Northern region of the country. This is a fact known to the terrorists
and their sponsors. As President Goodluck Jonathan flagged off the
thirteenth Federal University, the Nigeria Maritime University, in Warri
South LGA of Delta State penultimate Saturday, objective Nigerians
appreciated the fact that his expressed performance in this sector is
unprecedented.
It has become customary for opposition politicians and opposition
sponsored non-governmental organizations to climb the rooftop, shouting
obscenities at the administration. They pretend to be unaware of the
fundamental improvements that have made education attractive to the
northern less privileged people. More than ever before, the policies and
projects of the Jonathan administration have attracted more northerners
to the classrooms. The President is working hard to ensure that these
less privileged children are retained in the classrooms.
During his campaign runs for the 2011 elections, President Goodluck
Jonathan declared that he will use education as an empowerment tool for
the neglected northern youth. It seemed as if it was one of those
political promises. Three years down the line, he has fulfilled his
promises. Those who haul insults at him, do so hoping that nobody would
remind them of the fundamental changes the President has effected in a
sector neglected by past Presidents.
The major highlight of President Jonathan’s efforts to redefine education in the north is the
Almajiri
Education Programme. Through this programme, the President has made
some in-roads in addressing the out-of-school challenge posed by the
Almajiris. Of the 10.5 million estimated children out of school in the country, over 50 percent are
Almajiris.
What has been done transcends the physical structures in the states of
northern Nigeria. The administration put in place comprehensive
curriculum, books, instructional materials, relevant trainings and
building plans for states to take advantage in order to drive home a
much-needed reform.
The
Almajiri Education Programme introduced by President
Goodluck Jonathan has three models aimed at maximizing impact on a long
neglected zone. While Model One has to do with the integration of
traditional
Tsangaya/Qur’anic School into formal education system
within its original location, (in this case, additional classrooms are
built and new essential facilities provided), for Model Two, the Federal
Government constructed the schools with modern boarding facilities to
serve a group of
Tsangaya/Qur’anic schools within a given location. The Model Three is the integration of basic education in established
Islamiyyah and
Ma’ahad schools. This involves the provision of infrastructure and other facilities based on the needs of specific schools.
For years, these kids were denied their fundamental human right to
education, by those who now use them as weapons of insecurity. What
President Jonathan has brought to the table is a fundamental shift in
the ways things were being done. He has expanded the frontiers of the
empowerment of the less privileged in our communities. It is no longer
enough to give that
Almajiri a plate of food at a local restaurant and pretend that you have been nice to him. Encourage him to enrol in one of the new
Almajiri schools.
The All Girls School Initiative
Like the
Almajiris, the girl-child constitutes a high
percentage of the out-of-school children in Nigeria. Hence President
Goodluck Jonathan introduced the All Girls’ School Initiative as a part
of an overall policy to fundamentally address the challenges associated
with attaining the Education-for-All and the Millennium Development
Goals.
Schools have been constructed by the administration in 15 states of
the Federation with majority of them in Northern Nigeria. They are
geared towards resolving key issues that limit the ability of the
girl-child to contribute to national development. Such issues include:
socio-cultural barriers, religious misconception, early marriage,
insecurity of girls in schools, gender preference as well as the
distance of the schools to the girls.
At the time President Jonathan was sworn in on May 29, 2011, 12
states of the Federation lacked Federal universities. Nine of these
states were in the north. Three years down the line, President Goodluck
Jonathan has delivered Federal universities to all these states. We
leave the economists with the task of calculating the multiplier effect
of this profound investment in terms of community development, community
empowerment, professional skills acquisition, staffing, research and
development and social interactions.
In the course of the last three years, the President has ensured that
the Federal Government delivered over 60 million free textbooks and
library resource materials to less privileged Nigerian children in
public primary and junior secondary schools in all the states of the
Federation. He has completed plans to re-introduce the school-feeding
programme for all states of the Federation. These efforts are geared
towards ensuring that children who get enrolled in schools are retained
in the classes.
These renewed efforts have not been restricted to the pupils. More
than 1 million basic education teachers and administrators have been
trained by the administration in the past three years. This is
unprecedented. At the tertiary education level, over 13,000 lecturers in
universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have been trained.
Massive infrastructural improvements
Massive infrastructural re-generation has taken place in public basic
and tertiary institutions. The President has re-positioned TETFUND to
fund targeted infrastructural development in all state and Federal
tertiary institutions. Those who have their children in these schools
will attest to the fact that this is a golden era for the schools. This
was confirmed during the town-hall meetings the Supervising Minister of
Education, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike held with all the heads and
stakeholders of Federal tertiary institutions in all the states of the
Federation.
The most outstanding is the innovation by President Jonathan to
recreate infrastructure in all public universities in the country
through his introduction of the Needs Assessment for the universities.
The President has set aside N1.3 trillion for this purpose. The first
tranche of N200 billion is being accessed by the universities. The same
process is on for the polytechnics and colleges of education. No
previous administration took these fundamental steps to improve the
sector. He also introduced the Presidential Scholarship for Innovation
and Development, PRESID. This programme is dedicated to introducing
first class brains into the nation’s academic community.
President Jonathan’s goal as the leader of Africa’s largest economy
has been to create access to quality education. This he has
substantially achieved. He has implemented clearly planned programmes
for all geo-political zones of the Federation.
As the abducted girls gain their freedom in the coming days, in view
of the concerted efforts by President Jonathan, we must not lose sight
of the fact that education has undergone very positive changes under
this administration. The gains in this sector cannot be wished away by
sponsored editorials influenced by hired opposition propagandists in the
United States and United Kingdom who serve as known communication
consultants to identified political interest groups. These man-made
obstacles will not stop the President from continuing with his
implementation of planned programmes in the education sector for the
northern region.
