By Henry Umoru
ABUJA— THE Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA, has disclosed that it would spend N17 billion on education in 2011.

Meanwhile, the fate of well over 21,000 students of the Federal Capital Territory College of Education, Zuba, is hanging, following the non-passage of an enabling law by the National Assembly to make it a certificate awarding institution.

The school, since its establishment 10 years ago, has graduated 17,000 students with statement of results and no certificates, just as the college currently has 4,000 students waiting to graduate and join others.

Addressing newsmen weekend, the Secretary, Education Secretariat, Alhaji Hussaini Pai, who noted that this was an increase of 20% as against the 15,359,107,000.00 it spent in 2010, stressed that the administration had reached 95% 2010 budget implementation, with plans to cover 100% by March, both in capital and recurrent.

The Education Secretary, who disclosed that Abuja University of Technology, Abuja, AUTA, will take off in September, stressed that it was not going to operate on any temporary site, but from the former Polytechnic, Abaji, where structures were already on ground, reiterating that the idea behind the university was borne out of the need to ensure that graduates of FCT schools got a chance to acquire university education.

Pai said that one of the major challenges of the Secretariat was the non-passage of enabling laws for its agencies to operate fully and award certificates, just as he said that students and graduates of the FCT College of Education, Zuba, will not get their certificates if the law giving it such status was not passed, urging members of the National Assembly to hasten up the passage of the laws.

When asked if there were plans to increase school fees in the nation’s capital city, the education secretary said: “Considering the dwindling economic fortunes of Nigeria, orchestrated by the global financial crisis, it is essential, therefore, to look inwards and raise money from within.

“We intend to do this without placing too much pressure on parents. We intend to pay more attention to the establishment of a more robust collaboration with the organised private sector through a mutually beneficial PPP arrangement.

‘’We are also having challenges in passing the enabling laws of some of our agencies, top on the list of which is the FCT College of Education, Zuba. This is giving us serious concerns indeed because the lack of this law will ultimately affect the graduates of that school. That bill and the bills of some of our other agencies are currently before the National Assembly and we have been assured that they will be passed before the end of the current legislative calendar.’’

According to him, the influx of people into the FCT was also affecting the schools in the territory, just as he said that there are presently student population of 400,000, staff strength of over 12,000 with public schools numbering over 650 and private schools almost an equal number.

‘’To buttress this point, in the last ten years, enrolment has increased from 88,919 to 254,336 in primary schools; in the junior Secondary Schools established in the 2004/2005 academic session, enrolment increased from 16,030 to 62,211. Enrolment in senior secondary schools increased from 12,388 in 2000 to 31,659 in 2008. Non formal education enrolment has increased from 12,388 in 2008 to 16,200 in 2009.

The increase in the population of students in the critical areas of basic and secondary education has risen in some instances by almost 300%.’’