Stakeholders in education kick against bills

… says Bills will cause administrative bottlenecks

Stakeholders in the education sector, on Monday, during a public hearing by the Senate Committee on Education (Baisc & Secondary) kicked against the Federal Unity Schools Establishment Bill, 2022 and the National Examination Management Commission, 2022, stating that, the Bill when passed into law will duplicate the functions of the federal ministry of Education which is the mother ministry.

According to the minister who was represented by the acting Permanent Secretary, Mr. David Gende, said that the Bill undermines the role of the ministry in supervising the different types of examinations in the country.

“By giving the role of supervising examination to the proposed examination Management Commission, there would be too many administrative bottlenecks that will result in reckless spending by the federal government “.

“I urged the senate to discard the bill as it creates conflict with current educational policies, confuses operations of tertiary institution with that of secondary schools”.

The Bill minister also noted will try to create parallel workforce without any value addition.
“Therefore, the Bill is undesirable, retrogressive, and a waste of public funds”, he added.

Also speaking about the federal unity schools establishment Bill, 2022, the minister said that, unity schools were established with specific purposes and tempering with it would affect it negatively.

“Federal Unity Schools establishment bill will expose schools to unnecessary lawsuits, leadership tussles and other vices that will be detrimental to the development of education”.

“What the federal government should do is to establish more model schools that will meet the yearning of Nigerians”.

Professor Ishaq Oloyode, the JAMB registrar speaking at the public hearing said there is actually no problem with the current examination bodies in the country, as they are all doing well. The bill according to him will only end up causing more confusion as it will create duplication of duties.

Also, Mr. Patrick Arena, the head of WAEC, Nigeria said that the bill is make room for counter productivity as all examining body has board governing them.

Others who called for the discarding of the bill are: NECO, UBEC, NERDC, NABTEB,NUT, Unity School Old Students Association, USOSA, amongst others.

The sponsor of the Federal Unity schools establishment bill, 2022, Senator Bima Mohammad Enagi, thanked the stakeholders for their contributions and promised that all neccessary changes would be carried out on the said bill, while noting that the aim of the bill is to have a legal framework that will protect unity schools.

The Committee chairman thanked all stakeholders for bearing their mind on the two Bill’s and assured them that all necessary adjustments will be carried out by sponsors of the bills.