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Sir, you were sworn in as the minister of state for education (I) in July 2007, what was the state of the ministry you met?
By the time we reported here, we met a ministry that was in such a state. People were very disillusioned with regards to the way their work was going.

The reason is that when there are changes people take time to key in to these changes. The heat of the reforms was on ground by the time we reported for duty. The workers here were highly demoralized, some had been dislocated from their desks and had yet to be re-assigned to new ones and were therefore floating without assurance that they will be reassigned.

Our first task then was to reassure them, build their morale and encourage then. We took this step first because of our belief that when workers are not well motivated, the spirit to work will not be there and then the much-desired result cannot be derived. We explained that no action that had been taken so far in the ministry was meant as a punitive measure on anybody, but to improve on output and that they should understand it so and accept it. We encouraged them to take a critical look at the policies on ground and see how they can contribute their own quota to make things work.

That was the general situation then, in terms of manpower. On Education on the other hand, there were much complaints. People did not understand the way things were going. There were so many things being put down at the same time, in terms of reforms. What we did here was to educate people on the ideas behind the reforms and how they stand to improve our educational system if they join hands with us and make it work.

In making these explanations, we were also able to take a second and deeper look at the reforms themselves with a view to transforming some that we know could do with some modification to make them work better for the people. As a result of these modifications, people began to misunderstand us and to misinterpret our actions and intentions, and to say that we were reverting to the old situation. No we are not reverting. We are only making the reforms work better.

How well has the situation improved?
The situation generally is much improved now. We always say that matters that concern education are long term investments. We have to be vigilant and patient. It will take a little time to actualize our goals, but we are working seriously. We have done on-the-spot assessments to see things for ourselves and how well things are working or not. Still on the reforms, or what we call our review of the reforms, we have drawn up a Road Map.

Documents that will help improve the cause of education in the country. We are carrying out wide consultations with the generality of Nigerians to acquaint them with what we are doing. You know, keep them informed, and also hear from them about how well we are serving them or how they will like us to serve them

Oby Ezekwesili, your predecessor in office wept on national television because of the poor state of education in Nigeria. What is the situation now?
We react to things differently. Women are very emotional people, but a man is better able to bear things. I know, however, that things are much improved and getting even better. We will give you one example. The education allocation in the recently passed 2008 budget (Federal Government) is much higher than what it was in the past. This is a demonstration of the intentions of the Yar’ Adua administration to focus on education, as one of its seven-point agenda. In making education get a better allocation this year, government is translating its intentions to reality. The realities of making education in the country come up to international standards. To put it on a lighter note, government has heard the peoples’ cry and is making a positive response to it.

Some people believe that the non-functioning of the inspectorate division of your ministry is what is responsible for our poor educational output, what is government’s thinking?
Yes, government agrees that the inspectorate services of the ministry would have to be re-invigorated so as to make more impact. We agree that the collapse of the inspection system has actually led to poor output and that is why we are making effort to make sure the inspectorate services division are re-organized and better equipped to manage its functions. What we have done in the Road Map, which we mentioned earlier, is to focus attention on some of these areas.

We are thinking seriously of upgrading the inspectorate division to the level of a commission with wider powers to achieve more. What we did the in the area of inspection is to partially review the reforms that we earlier mentioned. The inspectorate division had been merged with UBEC under the reforms carried out earlier, and we felt that we should review that reform with the purpose of separating them. To make it stand on its own, and on a stronger form. This is because UBEC has its own problem, which brought it about, just like the inspectorate.

Their mandates and functions are actually not the same, so if you are merging them, what steps have you taken to make them conform? In other words, have you enlarged the mandate of UBEC to subsume or accommodate the functions of the inspectorate and so on? After we looked at all these things, we saw that the intentions were quite good but needed some modification to make them serve better.

Sir, how well is the READ project of your ministry doing?
The READ campaign has gained greater steam since we resumed work here. The reason for this is my position as the national vice president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). It has re-invigorated the interest to carry on the campaign much faster than was being done before my arrival here. We meet here practically every week on the campaign. A lot of programmes are being mapped out on the campaign, which will enhance the project.

Secondly, the READ campaign is part of other reforms, which we have been talking about. You can see that if we were reversing all the reforms we met on ground at the time we came here, we would not have continued with the READ campaign, which has been gaining more impetus.

How soon will we begin to feel the impact of this new energy you talk about?
We can tell you that it will be very soon. We told you earlier that a lot of patience is necessary in matters relating to education. It is like sowing a seed and giving it time to germinate. Nigerians will soon begin to feel the impact of the READ campaign. For now, we are working on our programmes and, as soon as they are ready, Nigerians will see them and feel their impact.

NERDC is one of the parastatals under your ministry, what really are its functions?
Thank you very much. NERDC is a research-based parastatal. They are also involved in educational planning and management. They carry out research into our schools curricular at various levels with the purpose of making sure that the curricular is in keeping with what is obtainable globally. They train and build capacity, produce teachers manual in context of the approved curricular.

What other parastatals are under your ministry and how would you rate their performance and what is the position of the national policy on education, sir?
The national policy on education came into being after the national curriculum conference, a seminar of exports drown from a wide range of interest groups within Nigeria, which took place in 1973. The second and third editions were published in 1981 and 1998 respectively. Now that first draft had inputs from the states and other interest groups before a final copy was put together and published. The other editions came to be in keeping with the dynamics of social change and the demands on education. Then, there is the fourth edition, which we are using currently, which was necessitated by some policy innovations, or changes that needed to be updated from the third edition. Very soon, the latest revision will be out for full circulation.

How often are revisions necessary?
Education is dynamic in nature. For this dynamism to be inculcated into the national philosophy of education for the purpose of making sure that the effect is felt by the generality of the people, the revision will continue. Revision is not static or based on calendar months. You cannot say that you will revise every five years and therefore leave all new trends until that time before you capture them or that you revised last year, when new trends evolve, you will not reflect or capture them in your education policy. No! You will not do these; you will take new trends as and when they come.

What is the role of the private sector in the national policy on education?
The private sector is playing a lot of roles, in education. This is hinged on the fact that education is a matter that concern everybody, whether public or private. That is why we emphasize the public, private partnership (PPP). The national policy on this is that the private sector should come in and complement government’s effort on the advancement of education. In other words, the private sector should come and partner government for advancement of the course of education.

During the course of this discussion, sir, you talked about the Road Map. What is this Road Map all about?
The Road Map is based on using the national policy on education to achieve greater development for the sector. You don’t just have a policy put on ground, and expect it to work. The Road Map are specific targets we have set for ourselves, after taking deep and reflective looks at the educational situation on ground and policies already in place to solve the problems were necessary and achieve our developmental targets and needs. It is to make sure that specific aspects of the national policy on education are properly captured. The whole essence of this is to make sure that what has been formulated is being put to action.