By Gloria Emmanuel In a determined move to have an easy identification of approved institutions in Africa, the Nigerian Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau, has called for the creation of a directory for all African universities.
Shekarau made the call at the opening ceremony of the meeting of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Ministers in Charge of Higher Education Tuesday in Abuja.
Represented by the minister of state for education, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, Shekarau said that such directory would enhance the quality of learning at African universities.
According to him, “We need a directory of approved African universities so that our children will find the appropriate institutions to acquire quality education.
“Most of the universities Africans attend abroad are mere business centres and fall short of the standard of the schools citizens of such countries attend.
“They cannot employ graduates produced by such universities so why should our children study in such schools?”.
The also commended the National Universities Commission (NUC) for always having an updated directory of approved universities in Nigeria and also making public the illegal ones.
According to him, other West African countries should emulate NUC in order to improve the quality of education in the sub region.
Shekarau said that the essence of the meeting was to take stock of higher education and research in the region with a view to improving access and quality.
He tasked the ministers to among other things discuss the Pan African University (PAU) project especially the nomination of persons for the post of President and Vice President of PAU’s council adding that the Federal Government of Nigeria had released the sum of N70 million to the institute to supplement its operational costs.
In his words, “Nigeria has also approved the release N250 million being her seed money granted to the institute for building an administrative block, classrooms, lecture theatre and part of the hostel facility for students.
“It is disheartening to note that very often, member states do not respond to issues as expected”, he regretted.
