FG kicks off education sector reforms

The Federal Government on Monday, said it is currently implementing reforms in the education sector to boost the delivery of services to Nigerians.

Speaking at a One-day Sensitisation Workshop on Reform Agenda and Awareness Campaign on Self-values Orientation for Directors of the Education Ministry and Parastatals in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Arc. Sonny Echono, said substantial progress has already been made in the reform process.

Echono said the reforms were in line with the transformation agenda of the current administration being implemented in all sectors.

 He noted that the reform agenda of government was gathering momentum in all sectors of national life, urging all in the education sector to come together to review their performance in line with government’s directives in every department and parastatal.

“We are committed, as a government, to improve service delivery to our people; we are also committed to blocking leakages, to reducing waste, to minimising idle time and to ensure that the limited resources placed at our disposal are used in a prudent and judicious manner to better the lives of our people,” he said.

He stated that the education sector was not only saddled with the responsibility of impacting knowledge and skills but also moulding the moral character and other attributes of the children placed in their disposal.

“We are also required at headquarter, to formulate policies and programmes that would advance the cause of national development, bearing in mind that education is the bedrock of all activities in our national development.

“We need to look inwards and see that given the difficult conditions we find ourselves, given the limited tools we have to do our work; how well are we applying ourselves, and what improvisation, what innovation, what extra effort are we making to ensure that we deliver our assignments on time, meet target and work under pressure as required?” he said.

Echono urged directors of various departments in the ministry and parastatals to imbibe a change of attitude in line with the federal government’s transformation agenda.

He stressed that for the country to achieve good governance, efficiency, self-value orientation and attitudinal change must be the watch word of staff at the directorate cadre, adding that a culture of discipline, punctuality, hard work in discharging official responsibility should be emphasised. 

“I must also stress that as heads of departments and units, you all are expected to demonstrate high level of integrity and sincerity which values are immeasurable,” he said.

Speaking further, the Perm Sec urged the directors to carry out their duties in a manner that is responsive to the country’s needs and in tandem with the objectives and aspirations of government, stressing that the ministry would soon entrench a reward system that is performance-based.

He said there was a dearth of skilled, committed officers in the civil service as a common conversation among permanent secretaries was how they could get good and dependable officers who can rise to the occasion at short notice.

He expressed the displeasure of the federal government over the growing number of out-of-school children, illiterate adults and kids who are in school but are not learning.

Earlier, the Director of reform coordination and service improvement Department of the Ministry, Mr Linus Egeruo, said the reform was centred on the ministry’s institutional capacity to check corruption and entrench organisational integrity and competence.

“It is therefore a logical necessity to state that the echelon of the public service should live by example in tandem to zero tolerance to corruption in line with the change mantra of the present government,” Egeruo said.