Maryam Abeeb
The Minister of Education has said harmonization is needed for schools, learners, teachers and examination bodies to be on the same page.
The Federal Ministry of Education sald t would constitute a national committee on the harmonization of schools and examination calendar following the disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, made this known at the 2020 Annual Ministerial briefing in Abuja.
Adamu said that there was a need for the harmonization so that schools, learners, teachers and examination bodies would be on the same page.
According to him, following the outbreak of COVID-19 by the end of 2019, the first step taken as a nation was to close down all the teaching and learning facilities nationwide in March 2020.
Speaking further on the interventions in tertiary institutions, the Minister said aside from some budgetary allocations and Revitalization funds to universities, the government spent a huge sum of money for the development of higher institutions in capital projects.
“Holistically, the five and half years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration have witnessed massive investment in capital projects in tertiary institutions totaling approximately 11.7 trillion in tertiary institutions with the universities taking two third of the total sum. In the history of Nigeria, no administration has this quantum of money in our tertiary institutions.”
Adamu further said the sector also took steps to increase carrying capacity and access to tertiary education in the last one year said a breakdown in terms of the number of universities shows that the country now has 44 Federal Universities, 50 State Universities, bringing the total number of public universities to 94.
“As at last count, the country has 79 private universities bringing the number of universities in Nigeria to 173 with a combined carrying capacity of over 2.5 million.
“In the last one year, we have taken steps to establish four public universities, 6 Polytechnics and 6 Federal Colleges of Education. We have also licensed 4 Private Universities, several Polytechnics Colleges of Education as well as allied institutions.
“Polytechnics and Allied Institutions Nigeria has a total of 85 (federal and state) polytechnics, sixty on private polytechnics, 117 monotechnics (federal, state and private), Colleges of Agriculture, specialized institutions and colleges of health technology. We have 158 Innovation Enterprise Institutions (federal, states and private).
“Total enrolment shows that the polytechnics have an enrolment figure of 348, 326 students while the Monotechnics have 33,338, with specialized institutions accounting for 5,197 and Innovative Enterprise Institutions (IEIS) recording 3,454 enrolments. Total enrolment in these categories of institutions stands at 385,118 students, “the Minister said.
He noted that the Ministry added six Federal Colleges of Education across the geopolitical zones and licensed 14 Colleges of Education, with the combined carrying capacity of 49,500.
