Out-of-school children
- COESU hails FG for exempting tertiary institutions from IPPIS, warns against sabotage
Stakeholders in the education sector met, yesterday, in Abuja to adopt strategies to tackle the over 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The meeting was held as the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) warned President Bola Tinubu of elements within the government that could sabotage his approval exempting universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions of learning from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
At a one-day retreat on quick wins in the ministerial deliverables (2023 to 2027), held, yesterday, in the nation’s capital, participants expressed worry over poor learning outcomes in basic education in the country.
In his keynote address, the Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, described the out-of-school phenomenon as embarrassing, disclosing that the Federal Government was planning to return 15 million children back to school by 2027.
He also revealed that effective January 2024, university authorities and other tertiary institutions in the country will be paid their own personnel from their own payment system instead of relying on the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The Guardian reports that a report by the World Bank indicates that Nigeria is faced with a staggering learning crisis, with about 70 percent of children in schools, who cannot read and write or perform basic numeracy tasks by age 10.
Also, according to a 2022 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Nigeria has over 20 million out-of-school children, the highest in Africa and third globally.
Speaking at the workshop attended by Directors as well as Chief Executives of parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education, Mamman said: “I would not want to bother you with the number of out-of-school children in the country, suffice it to say that it is an embarrassment that Nigeria is continually associated with one of the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
The minister said the adopted National Policy on Senior Secondary and Re-Entry Guidelines for Adolescent Girls, who dropped out of school prematurely, would considerably advance the ministry’s interventions for returning more Nigerian children to school.
He highlighted some of the quick wins in the sector since the present administration’s assumption of office including a 35 percent increase in salaries of workers in tertiary institutions; four months’ payment of salaries for the eight-month-long strike in 2022; removal from the IPPIS and granting autonomy to federal tertiary institutions for recruitment.
The development comes as the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has lauded President Bola Tinubu for listening to public outcry and exempting tertiary institutions from the IPPIS.
In a statement, yesterday, signed by COEASU President, Dr Smart Olugbeko, the union said it was one of the best decisions taken so far by the President since he assumed office.
The Union, however, warned that highly-placed civil servants not happy with the President’s directive may sabotage it.
Describing IPPIS as ‘fraudulent and ineffective’, Olugbeko stressed that it would take a long time before institutions can be completely healed of the injuries caused by the platform.
The Guardian
