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Education minister orders VC to find killers of Ekiti nursing student
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Minister of Education Prof Mamman, has directed the Vice Chancellor of Federal University Oyo-Ekiti, Prof. Abayomi Sunday Fasina, to find the killers of Miss Atanda Modupe Debora, a nursing student of the institution, for prosecution.
Miss Atanda was said to have been murdered by some criminal some days ago for yet-to-be-identified reasons.
The Minister who spoke at the opening session of the 2021/2022 Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference (NAEC), in Abuja, on Monday, asked the Vice Chancellor to join efforts with the security agencies within and outside the state to uncover the perpetrators of the heinous crime so they can be punished, to serve as deterrent to others who might be thinking of engaging in similar crime.
He maintained that the Federal Government was committed to the safety of schools in Nigeria which will be a source of encouragement to parents to release their children to attend schools.
He, however, challenged participants at the annual conference to develop superior solutions that would help the government implement several of its programmes geared towards improving the state of education in Nigeria.
He said: “This conference provides an opportunity for us to meet being the pillars of the Nigerian education system, and for us to restate our resolve to implement fundamental changes in the education sector for the benefit of the young, adult and the entire society. Your participation in this conference is an indication of the importance you attach to the growth and development of the sector in Nigeria.
“The theme for the conference ‘Implementation of Education 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Nigeria’ will always remain relevant until our country achieves 100 per cent of the targets set in the SDG 2030 and beyond to education-related indicators and targets of Agenda 2060 of the African Union.”
He disclosed that the President has given him and the management of the Ministry the task of reducing the number of out-of-school children and returning them to the classrooms to get the necessary education. “So, our target is to pull out 2.5 million children out of school annually until all the children are returned to school.
“What we need is the action on the ground and not the policy declaration. This is where I can tell you we intend to come in. We want to bridge the gaps between policy statements and the actualisation of outcomes. This is to give them future training that will enable them to live their lives and make them employers of labour. Everybody deserves to live a life of dignity for the well-being of their family,” he said.
Permanent Secretary, David Adejoh, who was represented by Abubakar Isah, the Director of ICT, Federal Ministry of Education, explained that the Conference was conceived in collaboration, with our development partners and other stakeholders as a means of constantly renewing efforts to ensure improved access to quality education within a strengthen delivery system.
He said the NAEC has helped the stakeholders to share ideas on what is working well and needs strengthening; what is not working well or not working at all to change direction; and most importantly agree on the responsibility of every stakeholder in improving what is working well and addressing identified challenges.
Representatives of UNESCO and UNICEF, in their separate remarks, confirmed that Nigeria was making progress in school enrollment, but suggested that more efforts are needed to improve on what has been achieved over time.