…Education Minister says he proposed establishing teachers corps
Education Minister Tunji Alausa has denied reports that he advocated the extension National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) service year from one to two years.
‘’I didn’t say NYSC should be extended for two years,” Alausa said while delivering the 28th convocation lecture of Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo yesterday.
He explained that what he proposed was the formation of a teacher corps with NYSC as the anchor to address the dearth of teachers in rural areas and bridge unemployment gap in the country.
The convocation lecture was entitled: “Patriotism, Citizenship, and National Ownership: The Imperative of Collective Responsibility for Nigeria’s Future.”
His words: ‘’My proposal to NYSC was that it should look into the possibility of forming teacher corps. It’s been done in other parts of the world. Let’s form a teacher corps, which NYSC can anchor.
“ Teacher corps will engage, voluntarily, in an optional way, teachers to go serve in rural communities for two years and pay them. Even if they’re being paid NYSC service wages. It’s not enough.”
The minister explained that his suggestion was informed by the fact that the nation has many well–trained but unemployed National Certificate of Education(NCE) holders.
‘’Today, we have more supply of NCE teachers who are well-trained but have no jobs. In the rural areas, there are no teachers to teach Mathematics, English and Sciences.’’
He also restated the Federal Government’s plan to launch a $10 million youth entrepreneurship venture capital grant for youths in the universities.
The minister also restated government’s plans for a N110 billion intervention for medical schools and infrastructure upgrade of Unity Schools at a cost of N80 billion.
All Progressives Congress(APC) National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje, who chaired the event, said President Bola Tinubu’s plan to establish skill acquisition centres in the six geopolitical zones of the country would make graduates self-reliant.
LASU Vice-Chancellor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello praised the President and Alausa for directing the return of History teaching to schools.