Education

How has Tahir Mamman fare on education sector driver’s seat?

CLEMENT IDOKO, writes on the efforts of the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, to reposition the education sector in the last six months and his recent engagement with the citizens, concluding that more is needed to be done to restore the glory of Nigeria’s education system.

THE appointment of the former vice chancellor of Baze University, Abuja, Professor Tahir Mamman, as Minister of Education, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on August 16, 2023,came with high expectations given his pedigree and as well as the decadence in the education sector requiring a competent hand to intervene.

Mamman, came in to inherit myriads of challenges in the education sector but the perception was that he was coming from the private sector as a manager of an elite university after serving as the director-general of the Nigerian Law School from 2005 to 2013.

Stakeholders agreed that the education sector in Nigeria is beset with many challenges, ranging from attacks on schools, the rot and infrastructural decay, inadequate teaching and learning facilities, shortage of qualified teachers, poor funding and large number of out-of-school children, learning crisis, and strike by staff unions, among others.

Expectedly, Mamman has spent six months on the driver’s seat with the firm support of the Minister of State for Education, Honourable (Dr) Tanko Yusuf Sununu. The question being asked by Nigerians is, what has Profession Mamman done so far to revamp the education sector that had been fraught with many challenges.

Equally important is the fact that President Tinubu also expected high-water mark performance from his cabinet ministers. He had handed to the two ministers of Education, 23 ministerial deliverables on the education sector at the end of the cabinet retreat for ministers, presidential aides, permanent secretaries and top government functionaries held between November 2 and 4, 2023.

The retreat was to prepare and sensitise them on the workings and processes of his administration, with a view to ensuring that ministries, departments and agencies deliver on the presidential priorities of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda for 2023 – 2027.’

The hallmark of the retreat was the signing of performance bonds by Ministers, ministers of state and permanent secretaries. The bonds contained the ministerial deliverables alongside their key performance indicators which provide the basis for measuring progress. Against each performance indicator are baseline data and targets for the next four years.

The ministerial deliverables are strategically crafted to address the priorities and focus area of the current administration. As such, a performance management process has been put in place to assess progress in the implementation of each Ministry’s deliverables both on a quarterly basis as well as an annual basis.

As directed by President Tinubu, every ministry as part of its signed performance bond, was mandated to initiate and hold quarterly sessions with all citizens at all levels including citizen groups, reputable civil society organisations, the media and academia.

Accordingly, the Federal Ministry of Education, last week held its maiden quarterly roundtable with citizens and stakeholders on the Nigerian Education Sector in line with its ministerial deliverables. The engagement session was hybrid with provision for virtual participation which allowed many more citizens to participate.

Mamman while addressing stakeholders at the citizens’ engagement meeting left no one in doubt that the ministry under his watch is focused and determined to make a difference in re-engineering the nation’s education system to deliver quality outcomes.

Stakeholders at the event affirmed that in spite of the identifiable challenges, Tahir Mamman, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria(SAN), has introduced some reforms and innovations aimed at repositioning the education sector in the country.

Mamman explained that the main aim of the engagement with citizens was to ensure that education sector is in tune and is seen to be working to address the concerns of citizens, drawing from the principles of ‘open government partnership’ and the co-creation process to enable citizens to share their perspectives and contribute effectively to the implementation of the ministerial deliverables.

He said the platform has provided an opportunity for him and the Minister of State for Education to inform Nigerians on the activities and achievements of the ministry and also receive constructive feedback on key areas of interest to the citizens.

Mamman in his presentation at the event, highlighted some of the key achievements of his administration since assumption of office in the last six months under the ministry’s 23 deliverables.

He noted that one of the things the ministry did in order to commence the effective implementation of the President’s mandate was the development of a four-year strategic plan captioned ‘Education for Renewed Hope: Nigeria Education Sector Roadmap’ 2024-2027. This was done in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.

He noted that the Roadmap contains eight focus areas and 13 pillars geared towards implementing the 23 Ministerial Deliverables. Furthermore, the Roadmap was further broken into annual work plans with timelines for easy monitoring and evaluation.

The eight focus areas are: equitable access; quality education and learning outcomes; skills and entrepreneurship education; research and innovation education; infrastructure planning; education financing and resourcing; system strengthening and policy recommendations.

According to the Minister, the mechanism established by the ministry for inter governmental relations had helped in building public private partnerships, brought about an increment in school enrollment, transition and completion for learners especially those with disabilities.

Mamman, who noted that the reduction of out-of-school children in Nigeria was one of the major focuses of the current administration, disclosed that over 2,000,000 out-of-school children, Almajiri had been enrolled in basic education and an Arabic literacy programme with vocational training.

He said introducing skills into the school’s curriculum and the digitisation of education from the primary level was necessary to address the learning crisis in the country.

The Minister revealed that a draft national skills framework had been produced and the document will be ready for approval by August. He stated that the move would lead to a total review of the school’s curriculum and teaching methods. The Minister said the government was also building the capacity of teachers on digital education.

He assured Nigerians that before the end of the year, many more children out of school will be brought back to acquire learning and skills.

He added that the ministry had developed the guidelines and training manuals for the implementation of inclusive basic education in Nigeria, saying, “this has increased access, enrollment and retention completion at the basic, secondary and tertiary schools levels.”

The Minister also revealed that in the last six months, 70,674 teachers and non-teaching staff from across all levels of academic and non-Academic training institutes were trained, 2,122 students were awarded Nigerian scholarship, 2,889 students studying abroad benefitted from bursary awards amongst other scholarships.

He further disclosed that the ministry was at the verge of signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the private firm on the PPP model, to overcome the challenges of data confronting the education sector.

The Minister said the ministry is implementing a digitalisation policy to ensure workflow processes and improve service delivery to clients and collaborating with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to increase access to education. He added that under the digitisation programme, all Federal Ministry of Education departmental records had been scanned and digitised into electronic documents.

According to him, the Ministry has also automated the Authentication and Accreditation of Certificates as well as automated the collation and compilation of admissions into Federal Unity Colleges. He also disclosed that over 35,000 teachers across the country had been trained in the use of ICT in the classroom.

He added that the Ministry has provided ICT equipment to produce digital content for all 36 States and the FCT.

He listed some of the challenges being faced in the education sector, which the ministry under his watch is working hard to overcome, to include insecurity ranging from attacks and abduction of schoolchildren, displacements, and disruptions of schooling in Nigeria. There is also the challenge of insufficient funding; and low esteem and poor public perception of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

Other challenges, according to him, are dearth of qualified teachers as acute shortage of qualified teachers in public primary schools estimated at 194,876 by the 2022/2023 National Personnel Audit conducted by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). There is also inadequate of caregivers, and instructors; insufficient capacity at the state and local government levels to implement Universal Basic Education (UBE) programmes.

Mamman similarly expressed concern about the dearth of reliable data for planning and evaluating progress against set targets; socio-cultural and economic barriers that create gender imbalance in the basic and senior secondary education and law enforcement of the UBE Act 2004 by states on enrolment, retention and completion.

The Minister also spoke about failure of some states to provide UBE counterpart funding in order to access the matching grant intervention funds as and when due. Findings by Nigerian Tribune revealed that as at March 5, unaccessed matching grant from 2005-2023 stood at over N55 billion.

Mamman, however, pointed out that lack of policy implementation remains the bane of education in Nigeria, noting that on assumption office, he met fantastic policies and reform programmes on papers that did not translate into action for the benefit of the Nigerian child.

He said this time the ministry is “working the talk” and charged directors and heads of agencies under the ministry to ensure that policies are not just implemented but drop down to touch Nigerian children and teachers that the reforms and investment were meant to benefit.

He informed that once his administration is done with the ongoing reforms and efforts to revitalise public schools in Nigeria, private institutions charging high fees would be forced to drastically reduce fees, because parents would see the quality in public institutions and would not have the need to enroll their children in schools where fees are unaffordable.

On his part, the Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, said the event was particularly apt at this time as it provided a platform for the Federal Ministry of Education to inform all citizens of its achievements in the delivery of the programmes and projects assigned to the sector by President Tinubu.

“Another important aspect of the gathering is to enable us to hear from the stakeholders their perception on the journey so far and also to listen to the stakeholders suggestions on more areas requiring urgent attention and priority focus.

“This engagement is aimed at creating awareness of the Federal Ministry of Education’s inclusive development efforts. It will also promote mutual understanding with stakeholders and citizens; build and sustain public trust; and improve transparency and accountability in the sector,” he said.

“Worthy of mention is that this engagement also aims to improve efficiency and streamline government operations by identifying and addressing bottlenecks. This is expected to lead to more effective resource allocation, improved service delivery and buy-in of major stakeholders in the educational programs of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration.

“We quite believe that there is a need for a strong team approach in addressing the numerous challenges confronting our education sector. Education being a tool for individual, community, country and global development cannot be treated in isolation. It was in realization of this that the International Labor Organization classified Education as an exportable commodity. By extension therefore, the need for both local and international collaboration becomes a necessity,” he said.

Sununu added that the uppermost focus of the Ministry is in the areas of ensuring credible, timely and reliable education data at all levels; reducing the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, and promoting skills development and acquisition at all levels.

He noted that in order to address the teaching and learning crisis at the Basic Education level, deployment of technology in Education has become mandatory and preparation to that effect has reached an advanced stage. He added the programme would soon be unveiled with commissioning of the Digital Resources Centre at Kado under the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

“Achieving these and many more is the responsibility of all of us. We believe that this engagement will enhance cordial relationships among all stakeholders, measure progress and identify areas where improvement is required,” he stated.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun, speaking at the event, commended the efforts of the ministers of education to transform the education sector in the last few months. He, however, expressed worry over increment in West African Examination Council (WAEC) registration fees to N27,000, noting that most parents could not afford to pay such.

He appealed to the Federal Government to come up with a policy on how the fees could be subsidised so as to give Nigerian children quality and affordable education.

Also, the Commander, National Safe School Response Coordination Centre, Dr Hammed Abodunrin said there was need to give security education to the citizenry, noting that the centre in collaboration with the education ministry was ready to take-off security education in schools.

On the part of development partners, Dr Mikayla Ibrahim, Education Adviser of the British High Commission, acknowledged the efforts of the Nigerian in addressing challenges in education. He revealed the United Kingdom Government has supported Nigeria’s basic education through the implementation of the Girls’ Education Programme (GEP 3) project.

According to him, the GEP project has given about 1.5 million girls access to learning.