Niger lawmakers urge call for education summit over decay at basic, secondary levels

Niger State House of Assembly has called on the State Government to convene an education summit to tackle the problems confronting the basic and secondary levels of education in the state.

The House made the call, following a motion sponsored by Muhammed Sani Idris, representing Tafa, Constituency during plenary,

Idris had explained the Universal Basic Education, UBE, Act. 2024 provides for Compulsory free Universal Basic Education for all Children of primary and junior Secondary school age in the Federation Republic of Nigeria.

According to him, “UBE has in its vision statement that at the end of nine – year continuous education, every child that passes through the system should acquire appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, Communication, manipulative and life skills and be employable, useful to himself/herself and the society at large by possessing relevant ethical and civil values”.

However, he noted that the policy seems not to be yielding any positive results due to certain reasons in the state even though the Niger State Government has been doing what it could to ensure the attainment of the aforesaid objectives of the UBE.

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“Because of the enormity of the burden of making quality education accessible to all children of school-going age in the state and the lack of understanding of the policy direction of education by the key players in the education sector coupled with non-adherence to some laws establishing some education agencies and the continuous policy summersaults by successive Government, there seem not to be by yielding any positive results, ” the lawmaker observed.

Idris further maintained that if urgent measures are not adopted to reverse the sorry state of education in the state, no meaningful development can be achieved as education remains the bedrock for the building of every meaningful development.

After the presentation, the House unanimously adopted the prayers of the motion and called on the Executive Arm of Government to convene an Education Summit in the state to bring together all key players in the management of education at the basic and secondary levels.

” The key players during the summit will brainstorm and come up with a clear blueprint that would address and reverse the decayed state of education at these levels in the State, ” the lawmakers added.