Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education, has declared that he had no knowledge of the sector when he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari, saying he only had a “superficial” knowledge about the secor before he became Minister.
Adamu, the longest-serving education Minister, who was appointed by Buhari in 2015 and served as minister of education for 91 months, spoke on Thursday during a valedictory service in his honour where he received accolades from members of staff of the ministry.
The Minister said that he consulted professors of education who assisted him in putting a roadmap together to make up for his lack of knowledge of the sector.
In 2016, Adamu unveiled the “Education for Change: A Ministerial Strategic Plan (MSP)” document for the country’s education sector, which was expected to serve as a blueprint or a pill capable of curing most of the ailments currently affecting the sector and provided immediate short and long-term solutions.
The Minister said: “I didn’t know anything about education except superficially. When Buhari decided to make me Minister of Education, there is somebody here sitting and looking at me; he was the first person I called. He said ‘what do you want to achieve?’ I said I want to achieve good things. And these are my ideas as a learner.
“After that meeting professors of education were called and I told them what I wanted to achieve and let them put it in writing for me and they (the professors) did. And then we had a document.”
During Adamu’s period as Minister, the sector witnessed lots of ups and downs, which includes the highest number of industrial strike actions from tertiary institutions-based unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union among others, the sector also witnessed the implementation of new policies, increase in the number of new institutions among others.
Adamu’s tenure also witnessed the implementation of a new retirement age for teachers and the establishment of more public and private universities.
Also, about 122 new universities were licensed by the National Universities Commission with some other colleges of education and polytechnics converted to universities during his minister’s reign.