Alausa to education officials: No more ‘half-done’ deliverables

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•Dr Tunji Alausa, Minister of Education

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…demands measurable results

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By Joseph Erunke, Abuja

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ABUJA — The Federal Government has moved to strengthen accountability in the implementation of education reforms, with the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, warning officials handling the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) that commencing a programme would no longer be enough to qualify it as completed.

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Alausa gave the warning on Friday in Abuja at a Ministerial Deliverables Meeting on NESRI, where the Ministry undertook a six-month review of progress on education sector reforms and subjected reported achievements to scrutiny to determine whether they had been fully delivered.

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The minister said the meeting was not convened to celebrate achievements, but to establish what had actually been accomplished, identify outstanding commitments and determine what must be done to complete ongoing assignments.

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“Today is not about celebrating what we have done and going home. It is about looking at what we have done, what remains to be done and how we can finish what we have started,” Alausa said.

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The review, coming six months after the last NESRI retreat in February, focused on verifying completed deliverables, identifying bottlenecks affecting pending assignments, setting realistic deadlines for completion and considering new priorities emerging within the education sector.

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Officials were required to defend assignments listed as completed and establish whether they had achieved their full scope, rather than being declared successful merely because activities had commenced or partial milestones had been reached.

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The minister also directed programme coordinators and responsible officials to take full ownership of outstanding deliverables, identify specific obstacles delaying implementation and agree on practical measures and timelines for resolving them.

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Alausa said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had demonstrated strong political commitment to education and provided the necessary support for reforms aimed at expanding access, improving quality and making education more relevant to the needs of Nigerians.

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He stressed that the mandate given to him and the Minister of State for Education was to do everything possible to ensure that every Nigerian child had access to quality education capable of providing the knowledge, skills and opportunities required to succeed.

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The minister, however, warned against complacency, saying achievements already recorded must serve as a springboard for the next phase of delivery rather than an excuse for officials to slow down.

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According to him, the NESRI reform agenda cuts across critical areas, including Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the out-of-school children crisis, girl-child education, quality assurance, education data and digitalisation.

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He said the success of the Ministry would ultimately be measured not by the number of programmes launched, meetings conducted or activities recorded in official documents, but by the tangible changes experienced by Nigerians in schools and throughout the education system.

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Alausa therefore tasked programme coordinators, directors and other officials with strengthening collaboration, maintaining clear responsibility for their respective assignments and focusing relentlessly on measurable outcomes.

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He assured Nigerians that the Ministry would continue to pursue the President’s education agenda with determination, sustain reforms already initiated and respond to emerging challenges, with the ultimate goal of building an education system in which every Nigerian child has a genuine opportunity to learn, acquire relevant skills and fulfil their potential.

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