The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has said that the Ministry of Education, as part of its plan this year, would focus on rebuilding schools destroyed by insurgents in the North-east. This was just as he disclosed that his ministry has provided 25 solar powered boreholes to 25 Federal Government Colleges in the six geo-political zones in 2016.
The Minister, who made this known while defending the 2017 budget proposal of the ministry before the Senate Committee on Education (Basic & Secondary), yesterday in Abuja, said besides the provision of borehole, the ministry equally provided sanitary facilities as well as modern kitchen and dining halls to the schools. “Some of the key achievements of the ministry in 2016 are the development of a roadmap for the education sector for 2016-2019.
“We also successfully implemented the Safe School Initiative Project with students of the Federal Unity Colleges located in the North East integrated into other colleges across the country. “There was also the development of teacher’s guide on teaching, learning and reading skills,” he said.
He, however noted that out of the N13.7 billion appropriated to Federal Unity Schools in 2016, only N5 billion was released amounting to 38 per cent of the total budget appropriation, adding that the amount released was fully utilised.
On the 2017 budget proposal, the minister said the sum of N448 billion was proposed for the ministry and all the sub-sectors under it. According to him, the ministry’s budget proposal is 17.9 billion, Parastatals- N38.5 billion, colleges of educationN43 billion, polytechnics-N61 billion, universities-N238 billion, unity colleges-N42.9 billion and UNESCO Paris-510.8 million.
