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The Minister of
Education, Ruqquayatu Rufa’i, on Monday, unfolded an action plan
containing key issues, which would be addressed within one year.

Speaking in Abuja,
at the inauguration of the task teams to oversee the implementation of
the plan, Mrs. Rufa’i disclosed that government is focused on those
interventions that will have maximum impact on education. She
identified four areas to highlight, which included access and equity;
standards and quality assurance; technical and vocational education and
training; and funding and resource utilisation.

The minister said
the plan will be reviewed on a monthly basis so that successes will be
measured and necessary corrections made.

“It is my hope that as we review our plan in the next few months, a number of milestones would have been achieved,” she said.

Mrs. Rufa’i said
she hoped to be able to present accurate data on the state of the
Nigerian education sector to the outside world. With accurate data, the
minister noted, government can efficiently allocate resources.

The plan also
provided for a robust communication infrastructure to help stakeholders
keep abreast of activities within the sector so that they are able to
participate in the efforts to improve it.

Further plans

Other activities
that will be addressed within the next year would include enhancing
quality in education delivery and teacher development, which will
include the restructuring of organisations such as National Teachers
Institute to ensure that it can effectively carry out its mandate.

Technical and
vocational education and training will be prioritised, as it has the
potential to revolutionlise the economy, she said. However, she said
the responsibility for implementing the action plan lies with the task
teams.

Six task teams were
set up to exhaustively monitor and where necessary, provide guidance in
the implementation of each area. Members of the six teams were drawn
from the federal ministry of education, international development
partners, academia, and other sectors involved in education and its
administration.

The teams are
expected to provide regular reports to the minister and also ensure
that timelines, as provided in the strategy, are followed.