Competency Test: Buhari laments Kaduna Teachers’ Mass Failure, lauds El-Rufai’s Reforms | WATCH

President Muhammadu Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday in Abuja endorsed the ongoing primary school education reforms embarked upon by the Kaduna state government.

The President made this known when he declared open a special retreat of the Federal Executive Council on Education, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Recall that the administration of Nasir El-Rufai came under attacks recently, especially from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over plans to sack at least 21,780 primary school teachers who could not pass a competency test.

The development which did not go down well with the leadership of the NLC prompted a protest on November 8 over what it described as “obnoxious plan” by the state government to sack the teachers.

However, Buhari while decrying the rot in the sector, said Nigeria could not progress beyond the level and standard of its current educational system.

Buhari said with the rot in the education sector, drastic measures had become necessary to salvage the situation.

According to him, the state of education in Nigeria calls for a serious concern, saying that stakeholders should not feign ignorance that the quality of education in Nigeria has dropped and would require greater attention and improvement.

He said the All Progressive Congress (APC) which he rode on to become President is committed to all the electoral promises made to revamp the education sector.

He also revealed that current statistics of out of school children stood at 13.2 million up from the 10 million estimated by the United Nations few years back.

“We cannot afford to continue lagging behind. Education is our launch-pad to a more successful, more productive and more prosperous future.

“This administration is committed to revitalising our education system and making it more responsive and globally competitive.”

He commended the Ministry of Education for setting the stage for this national conversation that aimed at refocusing the education sector.

The president expressed the hope that the retreat would not only overcome the numerous challenges facing the nation’s education sector, but also to strengthen the Ministerial Strategic Plan that had already been developed by the ministry.

Watch him speak below: