Cabinet Reshuffle: What Incoming Education Minister Must Do

Cabinet reshuffle

The incoming Minister of Education, Tunji Alaussa, is expected to address the longstanding issues within Nigeria’s education sector.

Development Diaries reports that President Bola Tinubu, in his cabinet reshuffle, announced Alaussa as the new Minister of Education and Suwaiba Ahmad as the Minister of State for Education.

With pressing issues such as inadequate infrastructure, underfunding, and systemic learning disparities, Alaussa’s agenda needs to prioritise building a strong foundation for basic and secondary education in Nigeria.

His approach should be informed by an understanding that basic and secondary education is the bedrock for national development and social mobility.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s education system is badly underfunded. Only seven percent of the federal budget was set aside for education in 2024, which is much less than UNESCO’s at least 15 percent recommendation.

Despite constitutional guarantees, Nigeria still has one of the highest rates of out-of-school children globally, with issues stemming from poverty, cultural barriers, and insecurity.

Nigeria’s legislation currently provides for nine years of free and compulsory education, which is from primary education up to junior secondary school three (JSS3). However, children who wish to continue their education up to senior secondary level have to pay school fees, which, unfortunately, many Nigerian families cannot afford. This is one of the reasons the country’s out-of-school numbers keep growing.

Another issue is insecurity. The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack counted at least 21 attacks on schools in the country between 2020 and 2021.

Nigeria adopted the global Safe Schools Declaration in 2019 after endorsing it in March 2015. Based on this proclamation, the nation is required to implement programmes and policies to stop attacks on schools, respond to them, and combat assault and impunity.

However, the federal government failed to implement the emergency initiative aimed at improving access and quality of education for more than 40 million children.

Achieving the country’s education commitments would require a substantial increase in funding.

Because education is on the concurrent list, the federal government cannot accomplish this on its own. Although state governments bear the majority of the nation’s responsibility for education, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has found that many of them are also underfunding the sector.

Development Diaries calls on the incoming minister to adopt the Civil Society Manifesto on Education demanding 12 years of free, compulsory, safe and quality education for all; improved funding; and secure schools.

We also call on the minister to work towards ensuring the amendment of the Universal Basic Education Act, 2004 to include a monitoring mechanism and a results-based framework that provides additional resources to states that meet certain deliverables in educational outcomes.

Photo source: Tunji Alausa

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