TheCable

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) says it is proud of its achievements in education, particularly the performance of President Goodluck Jonathan in the sector over the last four years.

The party urged Nigerians to vote for Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election to guarantee the future of education.

Speaking on Monday through Olisa Metuh, its spokesman, the party claimed that for 15 years, it had grown the education sector as a social instrument for national development and integration through vigorous implementation of broad-based policies in keeping with its manifesto and ideology.

The party saluted the president for accelerating the development of education at all levels in the last four years, noting: “President Jonathan has not only repositioned the public school system but has also provided the enabling environment for greater participation of private individuals and agencies in the delivery of education services under government regulation.

“This is in addition to the massive rehabilitation and upgrade of federal government-owned schools as well as the three-pronged programmes of the Almajiri Education System, the first of its kind; the Girl-Child Education and Back-to-School programmes, all of which have drastically
reduced the out-of-school children profile in the country, particularly in the north.

“The 150 Almajiri schools across the northern states and the Out-of-School-Children Programme including specialised boys and girls schools across the country have given meaning to the lives of hitherto despaired children.

“Under Jonathan’s watch, enrollment in basic schools has increased from 23 million in 2010 to 29 million in 2012 and still growing. In the same vein, enrollment in colleges of education has increased from 620, 000 in 2011 to 750,000 in 2013. Also the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) established by the PDP is expanding to 250, 000 enrollment annually.

“To guarantee enhanced access to university education, President Jonathan established 14 new universities, (nine in the northern states of Kogi, Taraba, Jigawa, Gombe, Nasarawa, Katsina, Yobe, Kebbi and Zamfara and three in the southern states of Ebonyi, Bayelsa and Ekiti) including two specialized Police and Maritime universities, thereby ensuring that all states of the federation and the federal capital territory have a federal university.

“Of course, the number of private primary, secondary and tertiary institutions has also doubled as a result of the education-friendly environment created by the PDP-led federal government. This is in addition to the establishment of new NCE awarding institutions and upgrade of strategic polytechnics for enhanced service delivery in the country.

“Again, in line with its commitment to the proper funding of the sector, the federal government has almost tripled education allocation from N224 billion in 2007 to 634 billion in 2013.

“This has been complemented with the creation of special intervention agencies such as TETFund and the special NEEDS assessment fund through which over N500 billion has been spent on various projects to increase access and improve the quality of infrastructure at the tertiary level of our education system.

“To guarantee quality education, the Jonathan administration has also sponsored over 5, 867 lecturers of federal and state tertiary institutions for post-graduate studies, out of which 1,375 were sponsored overseas.

“School curriculum was also reviewed in line with national development objectives while public-private partnership was strengthened with major publishers for the development of basic and senior secondary school textbooks.”

Stating that President Jonathan’s performance in the sector cuts across the entire spectrum of education in the country, the PDP argued that the record of achievements would not have been possible if not for the meticulous implementation of policies by the administration and the support of Nigerians.

The PDP therefore charged Nigerians to continue to support the president and to ensure that the” gains already recorded in the sector were consolidated by voting  for the party in the 2015 general election.