The Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has on Tuesday stated that the ministry is planing a proposal to change all federal colleges of education in the country to Universities of Education.
The Education minister while speaking at a budget defense before the joint House of Representatives Committees on Education, stated that the move becomes necessary because many students no longer seek admission into Colleges of Education .
The minister further stated that despite budgetary allocation to the Colleges of Education, some of them have less than 1000 students.
According to him : “Do we need these colleges of education? They don’t exist in United States of America, and several other advanced countries. Let us convert them to universities of education,”
The Minister stated that the 2025 budget is hinged on achieving major plank of President Bola Tinubu’s eight priorities which will be implemented through the ministerial deliverables of 2024-2027 in line with the education sector roadmap.
According to Alausa the thrust for the year 2025 is anchored on ensuring “that we provide opportunities for children to return to school, make the teaching and learning environment safer, improve the capacity of teachers to deliver curricular that are contemporary and globally competitive and improve the capacity of our tertiary institutions to produce appropriate human resource base for our national development.”
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He further disclosed that at the moment there are 54 federal universities including 4 inter – university centres; 36 federal polytechnics; 32 federal colleges of education and 118 federal unity colleges divided into conventional; sciences; and science and technical currently being dedicated as technical.
According to Alausa, the 2025 education budget is N2.5 trillion comprising N348.3 billion for Ministry of Education; N816.7 billion for Parastatals; N226.7 billion for Polytechnics; N139.3 for Colleges of Education; N811.9 billion for Universities; N171.6 billion for Unity Colleges and N3.1 billion for UNESCO Paris.
The chairman of the House Committee on University Education and Chairman of the joint Committee, Abubakar Hassan Fulata stated that the committee will do everything within their constitutional power to avoid disruption of academic activities and improve the standard of education in Nigeria.
He added that due to lack of enough fund to meet competing demands, the ministry and all relevant institutions should ensure proper and efficient utilization of the fund allocated for them.
Fulata warned against shunning invitations and summons by heads of MDAs, adding that the lawmakers carry out checks in line with the provisions of the constitution in order to ensure the MDAs are encouraged to do the right thing.
