By Kwin Israel, The Sight News
The Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has ordered a six-month review of Nigeria’s education reform programme, directing coordinators to verify completed deliverables, identify bottlenecks stalling pending tasks, and set firm timelines for outstanding work.
Dr. Alausa gave the directive on Friday at a Ministerial Deliverables Meeting on the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) in Abuja, where officials assessed progress made since the last NESRI retreat in February.
The review centred on four priorities: verifying which deliverables were genuinely complete rather than merely underway, examining the causes of delay on pending tasks, setting realistic timelines for unfinished assignments, and identifying new priorities requiring the ministry’s attention.
Officials were instructed to distinguish between deliverables that had achieved their full scope and those only partially executed, to prevent premature sign-off on incomplete work.
“Today is not about celebrating what we have done and going home. It is about looking at what we have done, what remains to be done and how we can finish what we have started,” Alausa said.
The minister credited President Bola Tinubu with sustained political backing for the reform agenda and said his mandate, alongside the Minister of State for Education, was to secure every Nigerian child’s access to quality education.
He warned against complacency, telling officials that each milestone reached should drive momentum toward the next phase rather than signal a pause.
NESRI’s scope spans technical and vocational education, STEM, out-of-school children, girl-child education, quality assurance, and education data and digitalisation.
Dr. Alausa said the ministry’s success would ultimately be measured not by the number of programmes launched or meetings held, but by tangible improvements in schools nationwide.
He called on programme coordinators and directors to strengthen collaboration and maintain clear accountability for their assigned outcomes, and pledged that the ministry would remain focused on implementing the reform agenda and addressing emerging challenges as they arise.
