Education minister warns against proliferation of universities

…unveils strategy to enroll 10m out-of-school children

Olatunji Alausa, Minister of Education, has urged lawmakers to halt the excessive establishment of new Universities, warning that the Federal Government is under increasing pressure to overhaul Nigeria’s education system.

Alausa made call while featuring at the ongoing Ministerial Press Briefing series organised by the Federal Ministry of Information on Thursday in Abuja.

Alausa emphasised the need to strengthen existing institutions rather than focusing on the creation of new ones.

According to him, pushing for more universities without enhancing the capacity of existing ones places undue pressure on the president.

“We must prioritise improving our institutions instead of constantly advocating for new universities,” he said. “The National Assembly is passing a significant number of bills almost 200 at the moment and this trend cannot continue”, he said.

Alausa highlighted that despite the growing number of Universities, their capacity to admit students remains inadequate.

He stressed the importance of rebuilding and upgrading current institutions to offer more relevant and high-quality courses.

He also pointed out that enrollment rates had not kept pace with the expansion of Universities.

“Private Universities, which make up just one per cent of all institutions, account for only 7.5% of total undergraduate enrollment.

“Currently, undergraduate enrollment stands at approximately 875,000, which is relatively low. Some universities have fewer than 1,000 undergraduate students, yet there is a persistent push to establish more institutions”, he noted.

He called for a strategic approach to higher education, urging policymakers to focus on strengthening existing Universities to improve access and quality rather than merely increasing their numbers.

The Minister lamented over the number of University bills in the National Assembly, stating that nearly 200 proposals for new institutions are under consideration.

According to him, there is a need to reduce the number of non-technical courses offered in specialised Universities and instead make them available in conventional Universities.

He also pledged the commitment of the Government to reducing the number of out-of-school children and creating opportunities for them in tertiary institutions.

On speculation of scrapping the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), Alausa said the Education Tax Fund would continue indefinitely.

“What we now need to do is to begin to open up more resources to develop infrastructure, build engineering workshops and build laboratories in these universities.

” We also must recruit international standard teachers so that we can begin to get these universities to deliver high quality education that will be known throughout the country.

“When it comes to the education tax, I think a tax fund is going to be furthered now because I’ve heard some information in the new tax bill about tax funds being subsidised by the year 2030,” he said

The Minister also reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to integrate 10 million out-of-school children.

On bold commitments to increase access, improve quality and enhance education systems for foundational learning, he said the Ministry was working on a clear strategy to improve the Country’s educational sector.

According to him, “between now and 2027, we are going to reconstruct 195,000 classrooms across the nation.

“With regards to infrastructure, between now and 2027, we will need to raise 195,000 classrooms across the nation.

“We will install 28, 000 toilets, 22,900 boreholes across other schools in the country.

“We will construct about 7,000 new new classrooms. And, as we do this with the provision of learning and teaching materials by organising 103 million textbooks,” he said.

Speaking on vocational and technical training in schools, the Minister explained that President Bola Tinubu had approved N120 billion as start-up for students’ entrepreneurial mode.

He said that the country is presently focusing on value chain in technical education where practical education would be given to train artisans .

He explained that dual mode of training would be given which would offer students to spend three days in school, one day for gigantic training and one day in the workshop.

On the abandoned national library project, Alausa said President Tinubu had committed about N40 billion to commence work on site thereby supporting academic and research needs.

He added that the Ministry had initiated key Committee on national education policy, national language policy and national Almajiri policy reviews

He noted administration of President Bola Tinubu would offer six months of free skills training to Nigerians to meet the needs of the industry.

This initiative, according to him, is aimed at addressing the two million job vacancies in the country.

He also noted that the Ministry was implementing measures to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education to meet the Country’s skill gaps.

“We are doing this through our Digital Training Academy (DTA), which will equip students with the skills needed to support various industries.

“According to UNESCO data, there are 650,000 vacancies in software development methodologies, 280,000 in cybersecurity, 160,000 in IT and automation.

“We are doing this through our Digital Training Academy (DTA), which will equip students with the skills needed to support various industries,” Alausa said.