EDUCATION Minister, Prof. Ruquattu Ahmed Rufai has challenged policy makers in the education sector to wake up from their slumber by ensuring that approved policy documents are translated to actualities.Rufai, who was speaking against the background that decisions taken at the highest level of education policy making in recent time have remained unimplemented after enormous resources would have been committed in monetary terms, said this attitude renders all efforts useless.Delivering a goodwill message at the Joint Consultative Committee on Education (JCCE) Reference Committee meetings held in Dutse, Jigawa State last week, the Minister declared that it was heart-rending, considering the enormous resources expended by government to improve the educational sector for excellence, when decisions reached are left unimplemented.Her, words: 'I wish to express the position of the Federal Ministry of Education regarding the implementation of past JCCE/NCE decisions. We have observed that some of these decisions taken by the highest level of the education policy making body the National Council on Education (NCE) end up as mere paper work.'It is disheartening that government will expend financial and material resources on these meetings for the benefit of our children an at the end of the day, the decisions are not implemented.'She indicated that the theme for the JCCE meetings, 'Re-Engineering Teacher Education and Development for Quality Service Delivery' was carefully chosen to suit the desire for quality education.Rufai reiterated the resolve of the ministry to continue to accord priority to teacher education for quality and development since no education can rise above the quality of its teachers.'The onerous task before us is to produce highly motivated, conscientious and efficient classroom teachers for all levels of our educational system.' The minister pointed out that the ministry is partnering the Education Sector Support Program in Nigeria (ESSPIN) to reform the policy formulation process, by working out details and guidelines that will uplift the process.The of the Chairman of the JCCE, Mrs. K. M. Lawal, represented by a director in the ministry, Dr. Idi Kutama, said re-engineering in education should start with teaching and learning rather than in administrative process. She said teaching profession in Nigeria has been at the receiving end leading to a serious setback in quality over the past twenty years. She emphasised the need to put more effort in teacher education in all plans to develop the education sector.
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