Gov. Ahmed Calls For National Summit On Education

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara has called for a national summit on how to reform education at the primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

The governor made the call when he received the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Alhaji Dikko Sulyman in Ilorin on Wednesday.

“It is important that a strong summit is held to improve the availability of school infrastructure; accessibility and the quality of teachers”, he said.

According to the governor, the summit has to be taken from a national perspective and address all issues relating to education in the country.

Ahmed expressed concern about the quality of teachers produced by the colleges of education designed to serve the basic education level.

He was of the opinion that the curricular at the colleges of education were not designed for basic education.

Ahmed was also of the view that the curriculum of the defunct Grade II was better designed to teach pupils at the primary schools unlike what prevails now.

The governor called on stakeholders in the education sector to map out strategies for taking basic education teachers’ salaries off local government councils in the country.

According to Ahmed, local government councils lacked capacity to finance the basic education teachers’ salaries, especially with the decline in allocations from the federation account.

Ahmed also called for adjustment of the present revenue allocation formula which favoured the federal government at the expense of the states and local governments.

Executive Secretary of UBEC, Suleiman said the commission had initiated a number of infrastructure development programmes in the basic education level across the state.

These, Suleiman said, included the renovation of schools, two electronic libraries, and seven `almajir’ schools.

He commended the Kwara State Government for the prompt payment of its counterpart fund for the projects.