Abuja – Malam Adamu Adamu, the Minister of Education and Prof. Anthony Anwuka, Minister of State for Education, have met with heads of some agencies in the ministry.
A statement issued by Agidike Onu on behalf of the Director Press, Ihuoma Priscilla, on Wednesday in Abuja, said the meeting was to acquaint the ministers of the activities of the agencies.
The statement listed some of the agencies the ministers met with as the National Universities Commission (NUC), Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
“ The meeting was aimed at acquainting the ministers about the operations of the parastatals.
“ The Executive Secretary of NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie, the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, and the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, took their turns to brief the ministers.”
The statement said Okojie’s briefing covered from the NUC inception to date, saying that the commission had grown from strength to strength over the years.
Okojie said the commission’s mandate was to improve access and quality of university education in Nigeria and to maintain high standard on accreditation of universities and their courses.
“Till date, the number of accredited universities stands at 141, comprising 40 Federal, 40 State and 61 private universities.
“Nigerian universities now rank very high in the international community,’’ the statement quoted Okojie as saying.
Ojerinde was quoted as saying that JAMB had continued to improve on its services, thereby easing the conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
He said the board had brought speed to the release of results of the examination which was now completely computerised.
“The JAMB boss told the ministers that no fewer than 600 centres had been identified for the 2016 exercise including special centres for the physically challenged and candidates in the Diaspora,’’ the statement said.
Ojerinde, however expressed worry over the discriminatory cut-off marks of 180 and 150 respectively adopted each year by the Policy Committee for universities and polytechnics/Colleges of Education respectively.
According to him, the practice defeats the aim of the UTME.
On TETFUND, the statement said Bogoro informed the ministers that the fund had become a brand for many African countries as five countries had established similar funds modelled after the Nigerian experience.
Bogoro said special attention was being accorded capacity building for staff in the various institutions alongside infrastructure development.
“The ministers promised to carefully study the briefing documents submitted by the agencies,’’ the statement said.
