After chalking and talking in one of Nigeria’s best varsities, Eghagha, a well-travelled scholar, left UNILAG to push back the frontiers of tertiary education in Delta. He tells Segun Elijah how the ministry of higher education is rolling with the punch in the state.
How much has the ministry of higher education helped Deltan youth in easing the pains of tertiary education since its creation in 2005?
The ministry was created in 2005 and was terminated with the James Ibori government. It was re-created in 2009 to co-ordinate tertiary institutions in the state. As an implementing arm of the state government, it brings government policies like the scholarship scheme, welfare programmes, and others on higher education to the institutions in Delta. Other states like Kano and Edo have also taken a cue from that. I should be modest enough to let those watching us be the judge.
Aren’t there some graphic ways of describing how well the ministry has performed?
I could have scored myself 100 percent. It’s good we let others judge. We have challenges, really. There are seven institutions on 10 campuses across the state. And they have challenges of access, carrying capacity, quality, and all that. What we do is budget for them every year, and see how much we can handle.
The carrying capacity, currently, accommodates 25 percent of Delta’s youth population. What improvement has the ministry recorded in terms of enrollment figures so far?
About 1.4 million candidates apply to higher institutions yearly. And the schools admit 350,000. In Delta State University, 40,000 candidates applied last year, when the carrying capacity was 3,500. The needs are there. It means the young people still need more space. The universities have to improve their infrastructure, and enlarge their programmes. The seven institutions aren’t really enough. But we are addressing this through certain policies.
Policies like?
Open access is one of them. We fund the institutions and pay teachers. On that, we spent N1 billion monthly. We also have the bursary and scholarship schemes. Every Deltan in higher institution is paid N20,000 every year. We have over 160,000 first-class students that we’ve sponsored for overseas studying. There are other intervention programmes, too.
The Edumarshal scheme is one good policy on basic education in the state. How many parents have you prosecuted for keeping their children out of school?
We can’t judge the compliance level now because it’s just three weeks old now. The project has three stages. First is sensitization of parents and advocacy campaign, for three months. Then we enlighten the parents on the right of children to education. Then we enlighten the parents on the right of the children to basic education. After this we can prosecute any second-time offender. This is a European system we are trying to bring to the 21st century Africa. We have a deeply entrenched culture of ‘my child can do anything I want”. But we are trying to make them know the state can decide for the children now.
Some statistics claims Delta has between 88.8 and 88.9 illiteracy level, the lowest in the south-south. Haven’t these policies affected school enrollment?
I reject that figure. We have been going to school around here for the past 200 years. It’s only out-of-school-children figure that could be higher in Delta. And we have been trying to create space for enrollment.
How much has the government committed to funding the higher education ministry – if it’s really passionate about tertiary education?
Since its recreation in 2009, the government has been allocating about N2.5 billion every year. Last year was N2.2 billion. And this year was N2.4 billion. All of that on capital expenditure only. On personnel, Delta State University gets over N6 billion every year as recurrent expenditure. You can get clearer details in the annual budget.
About N24 billion was spent recently on infrastructure in over 40 secondary schools in Delta. Some were handed back to the missionaries. Is the government feeling the pains of funding education up to the secondary level?
It’s not about funding. The agitation to return these schools to the missionary owners has been there. And we have a governor that thinks. You can remember that when the schools were run by these missionaries, the system was good. It was the unitary federal government that handed the schools to the states who have not been able to manage them well. We also believe the missionaries should be part of training our kids because they impart moral values to the schoolchildren.
Do you consider the human capital development benefit of the first-class graduates you train abroad to Delta – or you’re helping them to make good for themselves only?
If they choose, they can come back to the state, but they aren’t bound to do that. There are ways they can contribute to the state development. Like you said, they can come back after their Ph.D studies abroad to work in Delta. Again, the training they get overseas can allow them compete anywhere in the world. And they can contribute to the state wherever they are. I had all my education outside of the state, for instance. But now I’m back working there.
As a former university teacher, what’s your position on the on-going ASUU agitation for better funding of education in Nigeria?
I speak from the government point of view now. Our children’s education should be handled with caution by the all the stakeholders. Our schools should be open 24 hours a day, 360 days a year. All those in position to do this should do so, and provide the best for our children so they can compete anywhere.
NaijaAdvocate 