Statement by Nigeria's Honourable Minister of Education,
Mr. Abdul Waheed Khan: UNESCO Assistant Director-General
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Dr. Sam Ominyi Egwu, as Co-Chair of Plenary Session III -
"Beyond Talk: What Action for Higher Education and Research?"
- at the 2009 World Conference On Higher Education [WCHE]
Sunday 5 to Wednesday 8 July, 2009
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris: France
for Information and Communication,
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ambassadors and Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is my distinguished pleasure to join Mr. Abdul Waheed Khan of UNESCO as
co-chair of this session in welcoming you to this important plenary on Beyond
Talk: What Action for Higher Education and Research.
After two-and-half days of talks; on progress made since the 1998 World
Conference on Higher Education and the setting of a new agenda for the next
ten years, it is heart-warming that during this session, we will reflect on
how to translate our talk to action and concrete steps and hence guarantee
the attainment of our goals in higher education and research.
Permit me to a make few remarks on recent developments in higher education
in Nigeria as they relate to the theme of this session.
The higher education system of Nigeria with 95 Universities, 115 Monotechnics
and Polytechnics, 90 Colleges of Education, and 62 Innovation Enterprise
Institutions (IEIs) has recorded tremendous progress since the 1998 World
Conference in Higher Education. Improvements have been noted in access,
funding, quality, and relevance.
In spite of these gains, there is a huge gap between where we are and where
we want to be to make our higher education system implicitly dynamic,
nationally relevant and globally competitive. In its present state, our higher
education cannot fully meet the demands of the 7-point development Agenda of
Government and if new dynamics are not adopted in the delivery system,
Nigeria's higher education will fail to respond to the demands of our Vision
20-2020 aimed at making Nigeria one of the 20 leading economies by 2020.
In our quest to go from talk to action, my Ministry recently launched the
Roadmap for the transformation of the Nigerian Education sector with higher
education as a major thrust. This document which is available on my Ministry's
web site, evolved through extensive stakeholder consultations and bottom-up
approach.
The Roadmap has as focus, four cardinal points of Access and Equity,
Standards and Quality Assurance, Technical and Vocational Education and
Training; Funding and Resource Utilisation.
Some of the strategies we are adopting with regard to these four focal areas
include:
Increase in the carrying capacity of existing tertiary institutions to
expand access.
Encouragement to State Governments to establish more tertiary institutions
and upgrade existing ones
Improvement in the conditions of service and working environment to attract
and retain the best academics
Implementation of the ICT initiatives for tertiary institutions to enhance
teaching, learning and research.
Ensuring periodic review of curricula in line with national needs and goals
every five years
Encouraging self reliance through internal funding
Improved funding for research and innovation
Improvement in funding sources by exploring strategies such as cost-sharing,
private sector involvement, alumni, endowments, international development
partners and consultancy services
Combating degree mills and the closing down of illegal higher education
institutions so that quality is not compromised
Significant enhancement of the quality assurance activities of the higher
education regulatory bodies.
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
it is our desire in Nigeria to return to the 10-yearly cycle of World Conferences on
Higher Education with a report that we have gone beyond talk to action by cataloguing
our achievements in access, equity, quality, relevance and funding. It is my hope that
at the end of this session, we will all rise with the same commitment to action.
Thank you.
Dr. Sam Ominyi Egwu,
Honourable Minister of Education,
Federal Republic of Nigeria
Abuja, Nigeria / Paris, France
5 July 2009