Federal government has lamented the alleged mismanagement of the basic education level by some northern state governors.
The minister of education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, disclosed this to State House correspondents during the weekly ministerial briefing organised by the presidential communication team.
According to him, the situation is discouraging the federal government’s will to intervene at that level of education. He was reacting to a question on the state of nomadic education and said that the scheme had suffered similar fate as basic education in several northern states.
The federal government had established the National Commission for Nomadic Education in 1989 to provide access to basic education for the nomadic population of the country, with the aim of “boosting literacy and equipping them with skills and competences to enhance their well-being and participation in the nation-building process.”
However, reacting to a question on the state of the scheme, Mallam Adamu said, “The problem we have in nomadic education is like the problem I had when I came with my journalistic exuberance into government. I believe an emergency will be declared.
“But on reflection, not by me, but by the government, we found that declaring the emergency is more of a matter for states. And so, my effort was directed at the states. When I presented my memo to the Council, I was asked to go and present it to the National Economic Council.
“I presented the paper three times trying to convince state governments to see the wisdom in declaring emergency, at least in the primary schools, and then that will strengthen the hand of the government, even if by way of intervention, to help the states to rescue primary schools,” he said.
He argued that his efforts at the federal level as minister will “amount to nothing if the foundational education system is already rotten.”
The United Nations Children Fund, in 2018, said over 60 per cent of Nigeria’s out-of-school children are located in the country’s north.
The minister said, “The way our primary schools are…and I would like to say this about governors, especially in the northern states. It is as if they are looking for power to destroy education at the primary school level. Except for a few.”
Adamu also said the almajiri system inherited from the Jonathan administration was not properly implemented.
“I think the conception of Almajiri schools and how to run them were not properly done by the government we inherited. But I know right now they are being incorporated into our schools.
“As I told you, there are now about 6 million out-of-school children, probably some of them who are trooping here (Abuja), but certainly there should be government policy to stop the movement of Almajiri or Almajirai, as they’re called in Hausa, a provision should be made for instructing them wherever they are,” he said.
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