10 Roles of Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria.
The Federal Ministry of Education was founded in 1988 with a mission to use education as a tool for fostering the development of all Nigerian citizens to their full potentials, in the promotion of a strong, democratic, egalitarian, prosperous, indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God.”
The ministry is headed by the minister of education and the current minister of education is Adamu Adamu who assumed office in 2015.
10 Roles of Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria.
This article will discuss the roles of the Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria. If you are wondering why we need the Ministry of Education then read the following points to know why.
(1.) Curricula and syllabuses development for all schools in the country: Formal education requires a well-planned activity of learning with several sub-activities to span the entire years of training. Curricula and syllabuses are the maps and compasses which guides teaching and learning activities in all schools in the country. The ministry of education is responsible for drawing them up.
(2.) Controlling the quality of education in the country: the subunit of the ministry which is responsible for this is the Inspectorate department services which supervises all the schools across the country to ensure that high quality education is delivered by insisting that schools employ qualified hands, capable of taking different courses and subjects. They also make sure that teaching aids such as good laboratories are available.
(3.) Collation of data which is needed to plan or determine the funds allocated to education: It is the ministry of education who called the attention to the lapses in girl child education. This brought about a campaign that has revolutionized education of girl children across the country. Budgetary allocations are also based on this statistics made available by the ministry.
(4.) Harmonizing educational procedures across the country: although the ministry of education has offices operating in all the states of the federation, it is the federal ministry of education which harmonizes their procedures, so while they function as individual units, they do not contrast in the way things are done because they have been given a template.
(5.) The Federal ministry of education is the first point of call when there are educational issues where Nigeria needs to be represented. Either the minister of education goes by himself or delegate a competent and high profiled member of the ministry to represent him to discuss national interests bordering on education.
(6.) Formulating a national policy on education: there is a national policy on education in the country which has a policy thrust that is captured in the mission statement of the ministry as stated in the opening paragraph of this article. Policies are what guide actions of the ministry in order for us to have expected results.
(7.) Revenue generation for the federal government: The privately owned institutions whether it be primary, secondary, or tertiary institutions make certain remunerations to the federal government yearly in addition to the monies required in form of registration fee before schools officially open and begin operations.
(8.) Tackling illiteracy levels in the country: There are over 10 million illiterates in Nigeria. One of the Sustainable Development Goals which are aimed to be achieved in 2020 is to make education available to many more people and reduction of the number of illiterates all over the world. The Federal ministry of education is working towards this with their free primary education policy, encouraging adults to consider adult learning and the education for nomadic herdsmen initiative.
(9.) Regulating and working: It regulates functions together with ministry parastatals like National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja, National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Kaduna, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), Abuja, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Abuja, Federal Scholarship Board, Abuja, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Bwari, Abuja, West African Examination Council (WAEC), Lagos, National Examination Council (NECO), Minna, State and others.
(10.) Granting scholarships to the less privileged: It grants scholarships through the federal scholarship board which allows students to go abroad and learn about new cultures and get more exposure to be useful to themselves and the country at large.
See also: Importance Of Primary Education In Nigeria
Conclusion
The Federal Ministry of Education in Nigeria is an important arm of government that cannot be done without as far as education in Nigeria concerned as it regulates and pilots the affairs of education in the country.