By Emmanuella Oghenetega
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Olatunji Alausa has stated that although there has been some difficulties associated with the reforms of the Renewed Hope administration, Nigeria is on the path to stability and prosperity.
The Minister, who spoke at the 4th Edition of 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing Series, held at the National Press Centre, Radio House, Abuja, highlighted the ongoing economic reforms, as he also, reassured Nigerians that the government’s transformative policies are beginning to yield positive results.
The Minister while stating that the safety of children in schools was a top priority of the Renewed Hope Administration, disclosed that the Ministry was collaborating with the NSA Office to make sure that school were kept safe.
He expressed his sincere appreciation to the President for the support in revamping the educational system in the country, while stating that kidnapping in schools have reduced.
“The safe school initiatives have helped to curb the issue”
In an interview, the Minister, when asked about the fate of the 150 Almajiri schools built by President Goodluck Jonathan, the Minister noted that the Almajiri schools built about 10years ago were already dilapidated, as they were not put to use.
“We are working with UBEC and the Almajiri Commission to take over these schools.
“The Almajiri Commission will be operating those schools, we have designed additional funding from UBEC to the Almajiri Commission and for the Normadic Education Commission as well.
Hinting about financial support to the Mallams teaching the Almajiri children, Dr Alausa disclosed that, “The Mallams teaching the Almajiri needs financial support, by the time the government starts giving this financial support the children will not go out.
Speaking more on the challenges of out of school children, the inability of the Alimajiri to access western education and the girl child education, the Minister stated that the Ministry is collaborating with Agencies set up with interventions to move ten million Alimajiris from the streets.
Dr Alausa stated that, the Ministry of Education has put modalities in place to move the education sector from being resource-based to knowledge-based through the provision of equitable and accessible basic education.
Speaking on revamping the learning platforms, the Minister said before now, 45 million out of the 60 million Nigerians between the ages of 45 and 15 years were learning poor.
He noted that the people in this category of the 45 million can not read appropriate testing at age 10, while the highest number of the 50% of the 60 million people have never been to school, 5% of them dropped out and 25% are Alimajiris.
while saying the above figures have witnessed massive improvement, Dr. Alausa disclosed that the Ministry has initiated strategies to address the various challenges confronting Nigeria’s educational system, which are embedded in moving education from resource based economy to knowledge based economy.
“We have launched the Nigeria Education Data Initiative (NEDI), revamp our teachers and students learning platforms, roll out and expansion of digital online learning, new primary curriculum developed and rolled out, SSS being developed and reactivation of national learning assessment are few of our achievements”, Dr Alausa disclosed
On the conversion of Polytechnic to Universities, the Minister revealed that the converted Polytechnics are not the conventional universities, as they are going to be universities of Technical and Vocational training.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris while speaking at the briefing, reiterated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to transparency and accountability to Nigerians.
He emphasized that the Ministerial Press Briefing Series is a platform designed to promote public engagement and ensure that citizens are well-informed about government policies, initiatives, and reforms.
According to him, “Since the launch of the 2025 edition, five Honourable Ministers have taken the stage to present their scorecards, reflecting the administration’s unwavering commitment to good governance’’.
