Vice-President Kashim Shettima on Thursday says President Bola Tinubu’s administration is working assiduously to tame all bottlenecks to universal education in the country.
According to him , this is being championed through the ongoing reforms of the institutions tasked with overcoming the ideologies and inadequacies frustrating the sub sector.
Shettima stated this at the launching of a book titled,” Navigating the Politics of Universal Education Policies in Nigeria”, authored by Prof. Modupe Adelabu, former Deputy Governor of Ekiti, held at the NAF Conference Centre in Abuja.
He said, ” As a steward of the nation, His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu is leading the charge to reform the institutions tasked with overcoming the ideologies and inadequacies that had frustrated universal education in Nigeria.”
Shettima said the lack of financial autonomy for the local governments that were responsible for delivering primary education had financially hindered its alignment of the administrative units with the nation’s education agenda.
Shettima, however, said that the recent Supreme Court judgment empowering the local government councils to control their resources brought them closer to the people.
He said, ” It provides new hope for our educational initiatives. We need to align with the governance and see that the educational needs of our children are catered for.”
Shettima warned that the local government autonomy should not be abused, stressing that it should be used as a fulcrum, window and avenue for addressing educational needs at the grassroots level.
” And without the partnership between the Federal Government, the state and the local governments, very little can be accomplished.
” Just 15 to 20 years ago, local governments were not paying the salaries of primary school teachers and even the health workers.
” So, we have to put a mechanism in place to safeguard the interests of our core workers in the local government system,” he added.
Shettima reiterated his call on Nigerians to invest their trust in President Tinubu, emphasising that Tinubu meant well for the country.
