Lawmaker Calls For Raise In JAMB Cut-Off Mark, More Funding For Education
The Deputy Chairman Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education, Senator Akon Eyakenyi has expressed the need to deal with the waning quality of education in Nigeria.
While suggesting that curriculum and quality of teachers should be improved, she said Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) should raise the cut-off mark for students who want to study education.
Daily Trust reports that the lawmaker expressed this during the monitoring exercise of the 2022 National Personnel Audit, being carried out by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Abuja on Monday.
In her words: “The educational sector needs more funding. We have been crying out for that in the chambers. When we miss it at this level, the country will have issues to face.”
She stressed that education is not the responsibility of the government alone, adding that influential individuals should also invest in improving the quality of education.
Eyakenyi further expressed concern on the current state of insecurity which has triggered the growing numbers of out-of-school children.
“Parents don’t want to send their children to school again and that has increased the number of out-of-school children,” she added.
However, she pointed out that the essence of the audit is to help the planners gather information and proper data about the schools in Nigeria, and the record will help them to know how to advise the government, particularly the national assembly.
“Other than that, this exercise will also help the officers to identify the number of teachers that each school has, if it is commiserating with the number of pupils. The quality of the teachers are also very important, apart that, most importantly, is to ensure that those teachers are registered with TRCN,” she said.
“That is why this exercise covers both private and public Schools. We are concentrating on the primary and the junior secondary.” she added.
