Govt restates commitment to 2015 education target

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The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to achieving the Education For All Goals by the set date of 2015 with a view to

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to achieving the Education For All Goals by the set date of 2015 with a view to ensuring Nigeria’s accelerated development.

The Minister of State for Education, Chief Ezenwo Wike, said this during an interview with reporters in Paris, France.

Wike, who is part of the Nigerian delegation attending the 36th UNESCO Conference, said President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda had programmes to ensure access to quality education, especially by the less privileged.

His comments were contained in a statement on Tuesday by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Simeon Nwakaudu.

The statement quoted the minister as saying, "For us in Nigeria, we are working hard to attain the EFA goals by 2015. Our President and the Federal Ministry of Education are committed to enhancing quality access to education in our country."

Wike added that government had within the last five months given attention to the development of infrastructure for girl-child education, almajiri, nomadic and fishermen children’s schools as well as strengthening the capacity of teachers.

He noted that government’s commitment to addressing the challenges of education was borne out of the desire to develop a highly literate society that would eliminate growing insecurity and poverty through an enhanced capacity.

The minister also promised that the government would continue to liaise with UNESCO and other international development partners to improve on the standard of education in Nigeria.

He said the rot in the education sector had taken root over the years, pointing out that positive outcomes of Jonathan’s investment in education would take time to manifest.

Wike added, "We have in the last three months trained over 500,000 teachers in intense capacity building programmes across the 36 states through key parastatals in the education sector.

"We have also developed critical curricula relevant for our nation for the basic education and states are already keying into this curriculum."