President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ordered immediate reintroduction of school feeding with the implementation now to cover the entire basic education in Nigeria.
The directive came as the Federal Government has revealed a plan to return 15 million out-of-school children to the classrooms by the year 2027.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, who made this known on Thursday in Abuja while briefing newsmen during a one-day retreat on quick wins in the Ministerial Deliverables 2023-2027, for directors and chief executives of agencies under the Federal Ministry of Education, said the details would be worked out as soon as possible.
Mamman also revealed that the President equally ordered that the school feeding programme be moved from the Humanitarian Ministry to the Ministry of Education for effective implementation.
The last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari had introduced the school feeding programme to provide a meal for children in primary schools from classes 1-3.
The Minister said he had the opportunity of meeting with the President on Wednesday to brief him on the efforts made so far, especially on the development of a Strategic Roadmap for the sector, saying Tinubu was happy with the trajectory and order that “school feeding” is reintroduced immediately in the entire basic education and that the programme is moved to education ministry.
Mamman also used the occasion to clarify that no condition was attached to the approval by President Tinubu for the payment of four months of withheld salaries to members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) out of the eight months they were on strike, as wrongly being insinuated.
He added that the President’s gesture was intended to mitigate the plight of the lecturers and a concession to court ruling that was against ASUU, maintaining that the government is doing all it could to ensure industrial harmony in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
According to him, the disruption of academic activities as a result of incessant strike actions have adversely affected the growth of higher education in the country, including the brain drain syndrome.
The Minister also explained that the exemption of tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) as approved by the President, simply meant that Federal tertiary institutions would now return to their old mode of recruitment and payment of staff before IPPIS was foisted on them.
Mamman further clarified that the government has not adopted any other new platform for the payment of lecturers whether of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) proposed by ASUU or any other staff unions.
He, however, disclosed that the Governing Councils of Universities and other tertiary institutions would soon be inaugurated to take charge of recruitment and payment of staff in the respective institutions in line with the enabling laws establishing them.
He said: “No Nigerian would be happy with the epileptic delivery of academic activities in our tertiary institutions occasioned by long-unresolved agreements. Under the guidance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu we engaged in informal consultations with the Tertiary Institutions Based Unions and have began to build trust as exemplified by the resolution of the following issues: 35% increase in salaries of workers in our tertiary institutions; 4 months payment of salaries for the 8 months they were on strike in 2022.
“Removal from the Integrated Payment and Payroll Information System; and granting autonomy for recruitment.
“The Federal ministry of Education would work with the Honourable Minister of Finance/Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to ensure a seamless implementation of the above issues,” he said.
Mamman lamented the growing challenge of the learning crisis where children who are in basic education schools are not learning how to read and write, saying this was a by-product of the huge number of out-of-school children phenomenon in the country, which the Minister described as unacceptable and an embarrassment to the nation.
He said: “I would not want to bother you with the number of out-of-school children in the country, suffice it to say that it is an embarrassment that Nigeria is continually associated with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
“We would be paying particular attention to this unacceptable phenomenon and in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment, would work towards returning 15 million out-of-school children back to the classrooms by the year 2027,” Mamman said.
He noted that on assumption of office, the existing strategic plans of the Ministry were reviewed and inaugurated a Committee to develop a Roadmap “Education for Renewed Hope Agenda: Roadmap for the Nigerian Education Sector 2024- 2027, which was subjected to Stakeholder review, adoption and approved for implementation by the National Council on Education at its 67 Session held on 14 and 15th December, 2023.
He said the roadmap contains practical, problem-solving and realistic approaches across thirteen thematic areas delineated to allow for concurrent implementation as parts of a synergistic whole.
“The Roadmap underpins the Ministerial Deliverables, a compact signed between the management of the Federal Ministry of Education and Mr. President for which our tenure would be held accountable.
“It is also worth mentioning that the 2022/2022 Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference, which was held from 11th 12th September, 2023 provided an opportunity for knowledge and experience which was useful in developing the Roadmap.
“The Federal Ministry of Education has further distilled the implementation of the Ministerial deliverables to a more detailed implementation with turn-around strategies that would be measurable and capable of providing results that would be very visible to the Nigerian public,” the Minister stated.
