Ministerial Round Table on
Education and Economic Development
Friday 19 to Saturday 20 October, 2007
Paris: France
34th Session of UNESCO General Conference:

Intervention of Federal Republic of Ngeria's
Honourable Minister of Education:
Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachuku

Thank you Mr. Chairman:

Mr. Chairman

Director General

Ministers

Ambassadors

Ladies and Gentlemen:

May I first thank UNESCO Secretariat for this Ministerial Round Table.
For some of us new members, I hope we shall bring refreshment to the
discussions.

We all agree on the positive link between education and economic
development but the degree for each nation is an empirical question.
However, I have three issues to share with members states based on
our Nigerian experience. These issues include:
1:

Application of PPP model or Private Public Partnership. We are
conscious of market allocation oncerning education services.
For this we are considering three options:
a: Privatization
b: Concessioning
c: Adopt a Public School

2:

Secondly, we have the Universal Free Basic Education policy
in place instead of Universal Primary Education. This is
because six years in primary may not adequately provide the
required quality for graduating in this sub sector to face
the minimum challenges of labour and post primary education.
Also high quality basic education determines high quality
tertiary education; which in turn determines high quality
plus competitive labour.

3:

Thirdly, systemic or intersectorial brain drain due to the
corruption of the oil sector or distortion of our
national wage structure.

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