Federal Govt orders State Governors to declare state of emergency on education

The call to declare state of emergency on educational sector was made at the council meeting which was chaired by the Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo.

The National Economic Council (NEC) has directed all the 36 states of the federation to declare a state of emergency on the education sector.

This was disclosed after the monthly NEC meeting held at the Presidential Villa.

At the meeting which was chaired by the Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, the members deliberated on the revival of the educational sector based on the report from NEC ad-hoc committee.

Speaking to newsmen after the meeting, the deputy Governor of Edo state, Comrade Philip Shuaibu, stated that the council has resolved to declare the state of emergency in all states in order to declare commitment to revamping the educational sector.

He explained that the council's ad-hoc committee reports observed that measures were necessary to tackle the various challenges hindering the nation's objectives on the sector.

“Among the areas of attention are: the issue of out-of-school children, promoting adult literacy and special needs education, reviving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET), strengthening basic education, prioritizing teacher education, capacity building and professional development, ensuring quality and access in tertiary education, promoting ICT in education, boosting library services in education etc.” he said.

He added that “There is a strategic plan developed by the federal ministry of education beyond that you know the world is going global and technology is driving the world, if you look deeply, our major areas of development beyond infrastructure is the basic education and teachers and the council discovered that we need to also look into the area of technical education out of school children

“If we address basic education and the foundation is well laid at that level, obviously the secondary and tertiary education would have been half solved, declaring state of emergency is at the basic and we must look at the indices that make up our challenges especially at the area of technology.

“So, the ministerial plan is for all the states and local government to key in so that all will be on the same page. Its not going to be one of those documents that will be kept aside, and we are all unanimous in addressing it and all the states have agreed on this.”

Shuaibu added that a more detailed report will be prepared and presented at the next council meeting when decisions would be taken after recommendation by members.