Minister Seeks Teachers Service Commission

Minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has called for the establishment of the Federal Teachers’ Service Commission to ensure reforms put in place in the teaching profession yield desired results.

The minister spoke yesterday at the public presentation of “Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS) Book 1” series for Nigerian universities and a book in his honour.

He said the education backwardness being witnessed in the northern part of the country was caused by people of the area.

Adamu, who commended the National Universities Commission (NUC) for ensuring the springing up of more private universities in Nigeria, said the commission’s effort was paying off with the establishment of more such institutions in Northern Nigeria in recent times.

Adamu, however, expressed delight that out of the 37 new private universities approved by the Federal Executive Council on Monday, a large number of them are situated in the North.

Speaking on the CCMAS, the minister said the new curriculum would go a long way in adding value to graduates being churned out from Nigerian universities.

“We must continue to ensure graduates from Nigeria universities are equipped with needed skills, knowledge and expertise in order to succeed in the 21st century.

“We must consistently strive to improve our educational programmes and learning with the reality of global best practices. The CCMAS book series is aimed at achieving this goal, ” he said.

On the establishment of the Teachers Service Scheme, he said, “I want to leave one legacy in your hands (heads of education agencies and others), we wrote a letter and the President approved everything… , but there is one yet to come into fruition, that will make education totally different

“It was recently I realised we need a Federal Teachers Service Commission, so I want to leave this in your hands, so that all those things approved by Mr President, the teachers will be able to get it, and education will begin to attract the best brains,” Adamu said.

Also, the executive secretary of NUC, Professor Rasheed Abubakar, commended the minister for his several achievements recorded under his watch, especially in the area of universities development.

“As of yesterday morning, there were 111 private universities in the country, as of yesterday evening, the number had risen to 148 private universities in the country. That is of the 148 private universities in Nigeria, 87 or 60 percent came during Adamu Adamu as minister of education, ” the NUC boss said.