By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA—THE National Council on Education, NCE, has approved the establishment of Education Bank and Study Loan Boards by states at  concessionary interest rate to allow students easy access to fund.

The council, which took the decision at its 63rd conference in Abuja, also asked all states of the federation to establish what it called “Education Fund” with special emphasis on funding teacher development and secondary education.

A communique released to the media after the two-day event, said the council also called for establishment of a special intervention fund for persons with special needs just as it said  investments in education should be tax deductible.

The NCE, which also approved   that contracts and other financial transactions should be taxed to fund education, resolved    that revenue generated from parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education be ploughed back to the education sector.

According to the communique, stakeholders also resolved that the ”right conditions should be created for alumni to plough back to their alma-mater.”

After extensive deliberations on all the memoranda presented to the council and other issues on how to improve Nigeria’s education sector, it noted  that “there was no deliberate and carefully crafted policy by the Federal Government to ensure   that our schools are insulated from attacks,” saying “the Chibok girls and the recent Dapchi girls kidnapping are pointers to the unsafe nature of our schools for teaching and learning.”

The council, while also lamenting that there are no standard measures for schools to adopt in relation to safety and security of schools, said: ”A national policy on safety and security in schools in Nigeria will mitigate the insecurity in the education sector.”