The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu has allegedly stated that he has failed as a Minister.
According to the reports, the Minister said this at the 66th Meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE) which was held in Abuja on Thursday.
The Minister said that the out-of-school children problem is a direct result of the insecurity in the nation in parts as well as the weak resolve of the state governments.
He said, “7 years ago, when I became Minister, I made it (out-of-school-children challenge) my priority and up till this moment, it is my priority.
“I recently received a phone call from one of our elders where he informed me that I am now the longest-serving Minister of Education. I didn’t know and I didn’t really care because the only thing that worried me was that I came into office with the resolve to remove out-of-school children and I have failed, so for 7 years I have been unable to do this.”
The Minister explained that he had made attempts to encourage the State Governments to declare a state-of-emergency in the primary education sector as a result of the number of out-of-school children but it has still not been implemented.
“There are so many reasons why I have been unable to achieve it, Chief of which will have to do with you, Commissioners (state commissioners of Education). In 2016, I wrote the Ministerial Strategic Plan which I took to the Council and as a fallout, I requested that we should declare a State-Of-Emergency in Education, especially at the lower level.
“A decision couldn’t be taken on this because the issue of emergency in education at the level of Primary school is a State Government responsibility. So, I was directed by the President to turn that into a memo for the National Economic Council which I did with the thinking that if the council bought into it and the members are State Governors, it means it would just become a nationwide thing,” he added.
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