Policy Reversals'll Boost Educational Devt – FG
From Onwuka Nzeshi in Abuja, 09.06.2007
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=88507

The Federal Government   yesterday  said  that recent policy reversals in the education sector  were  in the best interest of  the country,  given the  fact that   the policies being revisited were  formulated  and   rolled out in a hurry without due recourse to existing legislations.
The explanation  followed  a confirmation that  the Inspectorate Division of the Federal Ministry of Education  which was  merged with the Universal Basic Education Commission  (UBEC)  in the heat of the reforms of the past administration  has been returned  to the  parent ministry.
Minister  of Education, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachuku   gave the confirmation  while receiving the  Director and Country Representative of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation  (UNESCO) in Nigeria, Mr. Abhimanyu Singh  The new Inspectorate Service Division,  the minister  disclosed,   will be strengthened to effectively police the   operations of primary and secondary schools across the country  and ensure that good  standards in terms of infrastructure, quality of teaching and learning were maintained   at all times in the nation’s school system.
In addition, Aja Nwachuku said, the Inspectorate Services Division  would be transformed  and empowered  like the National Universities Commission (NUC) to effectively and efficiently carry out its functions. The last administration  relocated the Inspectorate Division to the Universal Basic Education Commission  on the excuse that  the division had failed woefully to carry out its  statutory  functions in the sector.
According to Aja Nwachuku,, cultism, examination malpractices and other   social  vices now plaguing tertiary institutions across the country could have been  effectively curtailed if purposeful and regular supervision  services were carried  out at the primary and secondary  school levels of the nation’s educational   system. He therefore sought the cooperation of UNESCO  in building the capacity of the Inspectorate Services  Division to carry out  its  functions.
UNESCO boss disclosed that  he was at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Education to intimate the new leadership of the ministry  on the various levels of cooperation  existing between  Nigeria  and  UNESCO in the field of education. Singh said that UNESCO had  in the past assisted Nigeria  in strengthening and implementing a National Plan for Education For All (EFA); promotion of free and compulsory primary education as well as improvement of girl child education in parts of the country. The It will be recalled  that the Federal Government   recently  commenced  a serial suspension    of reforms   initiated  in the education sector   during  the Obasanjo administration claiming  that  some of the policies   were formulated  and implemented without due recourse  to   existing laws. First to be knocked down  was the  consolidation of tertiary educational institutions  in which the last administration sought to phase  out the polytechnics   by  merging them with  the universities.
The Federal  Scholarship Board  which was excised from the Federal Ministry of Education  and merged  with   the Education Trust Fund (ETF) during the tenure of Dr. Obiageli  Ezekwesili  as Minister of Education  was   returned  to its  original place while arrangements were rolled out  for an  expanded  stakeholders  summit   to enable    all relevant  agencies,  interest groups  and  institutions  in the sector   brainstorm  on the way forward  for  educational development  in Nigeria.