By Lambert Oparah<\/p>\n
The Honourable Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is not your unusual kind of Public Servant.\u00a0 At a time of so much cynicism and so much doubt about Public Service, we do need people like Wike to make us believe again.\u00a0 Wike as Minister of State for Education, oversees the Basic Education sub-sector which prepares and releases the pool of young boys and girls that are expected to hold the reins of leadership in the country in future.\u00a0 Transformation of our education system requires not only huge budgetary allocation but a bold change in approach to navigate the extremely difficult realities of our bureaucratic system.<\/p>\n
It requires innovative thinking, sense of dedication, committed leadership above all transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n
In the past 21 months since assumption of office as Minister of State for Education, Wike has provided these critical elements needed to turn around the fortunes of the basic education in the country.\u00a0 The success statistics across the country is glaring. From rehabilitations of Federal Unity Colleges, construction and equipping of libraries, provision of books for these schools, establishment of out-school-programmes for children in the South East and South-South to the execution of Almajiri School Projects in the north.<\/p>\n
The Honourable Minister in the words of Governor Godswill Akpabio\u00a0 of Akwa Ibom State is \u201ca prepared administrator with in-depth experience to deliver on the transformation agenda of Mr. President\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is evident that Wike\u2019s administrative knowledge as grassroot man, former Council Chairman and President of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) provided him with the necessary tools to carry out his functions with precision. Evolving the twin strategy of monitoring and evaluation of projects the Honourable Minister of State keeps school managers, contractors and other stakeholders in the education sector on their toes.\u00a0 Indeed it is a parlance amongst them that the \u201cfear of Wike is the beginning of wisdom\u201d.\u00a0 No more truancy among Principals and Heads of schools. Wike\u2019s unscheduled visits to inspect Federal Government projects in schools have improved service delivery.\u00a0 Between July 2011 when he was sworn-in as Minister of State for Education and now have seen fundamental changes for the overall advancement of this critical sector.<\/p>\n
In fact if there is one area the administration is beating its chest for measureable success it is the education sector.\u00a0 A look at the score sheets reveal impressive records in infrastructural development, rehabilitation, manpower development, funding, discipline and general provision of learning materials.<\/p>\n
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In terms of infrastructural development, over 40 Federal Unity Colleges that were hitherto under dilapidation have been rehabilitated.\u00a0 The teaching staff strength beefed up with over 1,305 temporary teachers of these schools converted to fulltime teachers.\u00a0 In an effort to improve the teaching of mathematics, English and core science subjects in these schools the Honourable Minister of State secured approval for the employment of 2,000 teachers to handle the two subjects.<\/p>\n
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For Wike, restoring the lost glory of the 104 Federal Unity Colleges<\/p>\n
(FUCs) across the country remains a priority.\u00a0 The Unity Colleges have been subject of intense national debate and concerns were being expressed as to their relevance.<\/p>\n
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Wike sought to reverse this trend through some reforms.\u00a0 First he institutionalized the culture of merit in the appointment, discipline and promotion of the administrators of the colleges.\u00a0 Appointment of heads of these schools are now based on competence \u201cFor anybody to emerge as principal of any of the 104 Unity Colleges, such a person must have to undergo both written and oral tests to determine his\/her suitability for the job, we will no longer accept a situation where people are appointed based on patronage and other form of cronism and nepotism\u201d Wike told the principals at the Annual General Meeting in Kano.<\/p>\n
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Second, the Honourable Minister realized that one major challenge of the colleges is funding.\u00a0 He therefore ensured that funds meant for the schools are released to them on time to handle the execution of projects.<\/p>\n
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As his\u00a0 trademark of ensuring that everyone is kept on his\/her toes Wike reinvigorate the inspectorate unit of the Ministry of Education that ensured that all the schools are monitored and that service delivery is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
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One of the strategies employed by the Minister of State for Education to get results is the monitoring and evaluation process. At the evaluation meeting which he presides, he never sides any party.\u00a0 Contractors that finish their work and did not receive payments are instantly directed to be paid while those that delay project execution are reprimanded.<\/p>\n
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Apart from regular meetings with contractors to appraise their level of work and challenges, the Honourable Minister personally leads the monitoring team of all the project across the six geopolitical zones.<\/p>\n
This singular approach has kept those executing the projects on track and reduced project abandonment.<\/p>\n
Rebuilding schools will not only require physical infrastructure but the needed manpower to develop the minds.\u00a0 Capacity building for teachers in Basic education institutions has received unprecedented attention under the leadership of the Minister of State for Education.\u00a0 A good number of teachers and basic education administrators have been trained in the last two years.\u00a0 These training programmes conducted by the National Teachers Institute (NTI) and the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, were supervised directly by the Minister.<\/p>\n
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As part of the re-engineering process of the basic education sector the Federal Government is providing infrastructural materials in teaching and learning and this has greatly improved qualitative education.\u00a0 Over<\/p>\n
35,000,000 copies of texts books in English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies and Basic Science Technology and library resource materials were distributed to primary pupils across the country in the last two years.<\/p>\n
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The Honourable Minister of State\u2019s compelling achievements in the basic education sub-sector is his deploticisation of the entire programme.\u00a0 He has carried along with him all the stakeholders including state governors in opposing political camps.\u00a0 He enlisted the support of community leaders, traditional rulers, the civil society groups, the Community Based Organisations (CBO\u2019s), the international community and the business community.\u00a0 In a rare expression of his feelings concerning Wike\u2019s performance Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo State Governor congratulated President Goodluck Jonathan \u201cfor appointing an official who understands the urgency required to address the challenges of basic education and has set out to carry out his functions with rare dedication\u201d.\u00a0 This was during the flag-off of book distribution to primary and secondary pupils in the South West Zone.<\/p>\n
By this April, the Ministry will commission series of UBEC projects including libraries and Girl Child projects across the country.\u00a0 The projects were systematically phased to ensure that no stone was left unturned.\u00a0 These include school laboratories, classrooms, hostels, assembly halls, libraries etc.<\/p>\n
To ensure that these projects are completed as scheduled, the regular meetings between the Minister, the contractors and relevant parastatals usually presided over by Barrister Wike have been intensified.<\/p>\n
Expectedly, the Minister\u2019s modus operandi has been a source of nightmare to those in the system who are used to old ways of doing things.\u00a0 Those who are uncomfortable with his pragmatic approach to solving problems particularly among managers of government schools are kicking.\u00a0 But the Minister will not give in as he once told the Principals of Unity Colleges clearly that \u201ctheir inability to provide right leadership needed to meet the challenges of administering public schools is partly responsible for the abysmal failure of these schools to satisfy the public expectations<\/p>\n
particularly in the area of academic excellence\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 He further cautioned<\/p>\n
that the new policy regime for Unity Schools will demand greater responsibility from principals.<\/p>\n
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Nigerians across the board appreciate Wike\u2019s hard work and they are lavishing words of encouragements on him for his genuine commitment and service to the nation.\u00a0 From the north, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa\u2019ad Abubakar III commended Wike for the Almajiri school project execution.<\/p>\n
From the South East Governor Peter Obi gave kudos to the Minister for the out-of-school programme. From the South West Governor Olusegun Mimiko congratulated President Jonathan for giant strides in the basic education sub-sector.\u00a0 In Edo State, the Government and the traditional ruler of<\/p>\n
Benin Kingdom have thrown their weights behind Wike.\u00a0\u00a0 In Niger and Cross<\/p>\n
Rivers States, the stories are the same, the Governors declared their support for the intervention programme of the Ministry of Education being championed by Wike and his team.<\/p>\n
While the Honourable Minister is striving on his part to chart a new course in the educational road map of this country through the rejuvenation of the basic education sub-sector, it is the duty of all Nigerians to encourage this effort by lending their support.<\/p>\n
We have to change our mindset that education is the responsibility of government alone. We have the mutual responsibility to ensure that our schools are properly funded, our teachers adequately remunerated and our pupils have access to basic and affordable education.\u00a0 It is a wise investment for our future.<\/p>\n
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\u2022 MR. OPARAH is Special Assistant to Honourable Minister of State for<\/p>\n
Education<\/p>\n
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By Lambert Oparah The Honourable Minister of State for Education, Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike is not your unusual kind of Public Servant.\u00a0 At a time of so much cynicism and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n