Govt to spend N12b on labs in colleges

DETERMINED to boost the quality of teachers in the country, the Federal Government is planning to construct multi-media laboratories in all the public-owned colleges of education in the country before the end of this year.
The proposed project is estimated to cost about N12 billion. Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’I, stated this Monday during a bilateral meeting in her office between top officials of the ministry and a delegation of GEMS Education Solution, an educational training outfit based in the United Kingdom.
She also disclosed that the government intends to equip all the technical colleges in the country with another N6.6 billion to boost technical and vocational training. The minister underscored the importance of data collection and management, as well as quality teachers, to the attainment of quality education.
She noted that the government had since 2011 tried to update the data on the number of schools in the country, the number of teachers, students/pupils and other supporting infrastructure between 2008 and 2010 to aid proper planning in the country.
According to her, in no distant future, government will embark on the compilation of data to cover the period between 2011 and 2012.