The Federal Government has approved the implementation of the recommendations of the government’s committee on repositioning federal and state universities.
President Goodluck Jonathan said this on Monday in Lafia when he inaugurated Tanko Al-makura (TAAL) Model School.
The committee was set up following the advice by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on improvement of the citadel of knowledge.
“Billions of naira have been made available to the Federal Ministry of Education for immediate implementation of the recommendations of the committee”, he said.
The president, represented by the Vice President, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, said the Federal Ministry of Education had been directed to commence the full implementation the recommendations of the committee.
Jonathan said efforts would not be spared in ensuring that every child was in school, adding that with 9.5 million children, the country had the highest number of children without access to basic education in Africa.
He pledged that the federal government would continue to provide support to Nasarawa State Government’s efforts to provide quality education through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
Jonathan also promised that the federal government would provide free textbooks and science laboratory equipment to TA’AL model school and other model schools in all the local government areas of the state.
Earlier, Gov. Umaru Tanko Almakura had noted that “this is the first time in many years that the president of our great nation would commission any project in the State”.
Almakura said it was unfortunate that “despite the fundamental importance of education to the development of our society and its influence on our way of life, we lost our bearing on education a long time ago.
“There is no doubt that over the years, we have allowed mediocrity to invade the quality of our public schools.
“It is in this direction that we, as a government in our quest to enhance social justice, have established this model school.
“This school is not only for the elite, but for all citizens of the state, including the rural population.
