FG asked to release funds to tackle rot in education sector

Executive Secretary of National Senior Secondary Education Commission (NSSEC), Dr Iyela Ajayi, has called on the federal government to release the two per cent consolidated revenue fund for the commission to tackle rot in Senior Secondary Education.

Ajayi, who made the call while addressing the press, said the rot in Senior Secondary Education, which includes inadequate facilities; inadequate number of teachers in terms of quality and quantity, among others, needed to be addressed.

He said the commission had developed a document on guidelines for accessing, disbursing and utilising the federal government /NSSEC intervention fund.

He said the Senior Secondary Education has remained an orphan since 2004 when the federal government removed junior secondary education and merged it with primary education to form Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

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While noting that in order for state governments to benefit from the fund they must contribute five per cent as the counterpart funding, the executive secretary said many state governors had already keyed into that and were waiting to access the fund to tackle the rot.

He disclosed that as part of efforts to revolutionise the Senior Secondary education in the country, the commission had developed a minimum standard for Senior Secondary Education, which defined the benchmark on how many teachers a school should have the ratio of teachers to students, size, qualification of teachers, governance and safety requirements of every school among others.

“This document is capable of revolutionsing secondary education in the country,” he said.

The NSSEC boss however, lamented that paucity of funds is affecting the commission from achieving its required mandates as well as inadequate office accommodation. Although the commission has embarked on needs assessment of senior secondary schools in some states there is a need for a comprehensive needs assessment exercise of schools in the states across the country.”

He said funds were needed for it and other things like development of instructional materials, publication of important documents such as minimum strategic plan, capacity building and meeting with stakeholders among others.

On repositioning the commission he said: “I have introduced the culture of due process transparency probity and accountability in all financial matters in the commission and ensure that due process in line with the procurement act is fully implemented in the award of all contracts in the commission.”