Hope not lost on education for all by 2015 – Rufa’i

The Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, has said that hope is not lost on achieving the Millennium Development Goals as they relate to the education sector by the year 2015, judging from the aggressive efforts being made by the Federal Government.
The minister, in her keynote address at a three-day meeting on MDGs implementation status in the Education Sector, holding at Top Rank Hotel, Abuja, stressed that within the two years left, the Federal Government would have achieved considerable level of success even if 100 per cent is not recorded.
According to her, Nigeria’s level of commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals remains unshaken, citing government’s efforts in the areas of Access and Quality Assurance; Strengthening the institutional management of Education; Teacher Education and development; Technical and Vocational Education and Training; and Funding, partnerships Resource Mobilization and Utilization.
Professor Rufa’i acknowledged that the achievement of MDGs 2 and 3, which are primary concern of the Education Sector, are very critical because they are also tied to the achievement of other Goals.
She therefore urged the participants at the meeting to carry out a thorough assessment of the implementation level so far with a view to reviewing strategies adopted for meeting the target within the available resources.
“The reality is that there is bound to be cash flow challenges; as a result there is therefore the need for beneficiaries to carefully adjust their plans to be in line with approved budget,’’ she said.
Speaking further, the Minister said that the United Nations Secretary-General has called on countries to work on their post-2015 agenda based on a critical evaluation of MDGs framework, looking at what has worked well and areas of improvement, especially in response to current developmental challenges.
This is even as she stated that Nigeria has taken steps to comply in this direction and has prepared a position paper for her post 2015 agenda.
The Minister expressed appreciation to President Goodluck Jonathan for his consistent support for the sector, noting that over the past few months, he has been at the forefront of supporting a number of efforts, including the recent meeting with Gordon Brown during the World Economic Forum-Africa on issues pertaining to education, meeting with the National Economic Council as well as proposed meeting with Global Business Coalition on Education among others due to hold in due course.
Earlier, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr. Precious Kalamba Gbeneoi, said that the President had directed his office to ascertain the level of implementation status report of MDGs in Nigeria and the impending challenges for Nigeria to meet the goals, stressing that greater intervention initiatives must be introduced in the drive for more efficiency and progress.
Jonathan was said to have noted that less than two years to the terminal period, there is still much work to be done, hence he called for redoubled efforts and judicious use of resources.
The Deputy Director in charge of MDGs in the Ministry, Rhoda Onyimadu, made a power point presentation entitled: “Meeting MDGs by 2015: Issues and challenges.”
Onyimadu said that the three goals that relate to education are universal basic education, gender equality and Goal 6 (a cutting across goal), which is combating HIV/ AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
She reviewed some of the achievements recorded so far to include building the capacity of 35,090 Education Sector planners and head teachers, Training of 718,184 teachers and distribution of mathematics, English and Basic Science and Technology textbooks to primary schools and JSS Library books. She also cited the mainstreaming of Almajiri education, revitalization of Adult literacy programmes and curriculum review, infrastructural development across the schools and promotion of girl education among others.
Onyimadu also highlighted areas of challenges, which she said would be of focus in 2014, to include Data collection, scaling up read campaign, school friendly environment, improved funding and ICT.