Book Review
Title: Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i: 41 months of Service as Minister of Education
Compiled by: Prof. Sagir Adamu Abbas, Dr. Mustapha Mohammed Jarimi, Alh Yakubu Abass
Pagination: 300
Reviewer: Martin Paul
The Jigawa state born professor of education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai, was in the saddle as minister of education from 2010 to 2013, a period she showed tremendous concern about the state of education and how it could be developed.
During this period, she had some lieutenants working with her. Among those are Prof.
Sagir Adamu Abbas, Dr. Mustapha Mohammed Jarimi, Alh Yakubu Abass, who succinctly review the 41 months of Ruqayyatu in the ministry of education.
The 300 paged, well designed, hard covered book, characteristically, opens with a beautiful picture of the former minister, Ruqayyatu and followed by the copyright and preface pages anchored by Professor Sigir Abass, who extolled Ruqayyatu’s imprint in the ministry of education.
A four paged ‘table of contents’ and ‘foreword’, clearly distinguished the expanse and dexterity of which the compilers went down the memory lane to bring out the various areas of focus, which include strengthening institutional management of education, access and equity, standard and quality, teacher education and development, technical, vocational education and training and funding, partnership, resources mobilisation and utilisation, and which were the focal points of the former minister.
Another nine pages containing list of acronyms, list of figures as well as the profile of the former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, further add impetus to the growing status of the amiable woman minister in the midst of political juggernauts.
An adage said a goldfish has no hiding place, therefore, Ruqayyatu, when appointed Jigawa Commissioner for health, between 1997 and 1999, proofed her mettle and became a cynosure of envy among the women folk in the state.
Having completed her tenure as commission, she returned to Bayero University, Kanu (BUK), where she continued to produce quality student-teachers for the educational system of the country.
Section one of the book detailed the planning stage on development of strategic plans, departure from the norms, development of the one-year-strategy for the development of the education sector, from May 2010 to April 2011, development of a 4-year-strategic plan for the development of the education sector from 2011 to 2015 and the presidential summit on education.
Precisely put, the 4-year strategic plan for the development of the education sector had the same principles of the one-strategy, but with a wider focus, larger scale, key mandates with expansive challenges.
It was on this premise that issues of access and equity, became one major area of concerns for the minister, who launched the national campaign on education in Adamawa state, institutionalise Early Childhood Care and Development Education (ECCDE) and introduced the Almajiri education, Out-of-School and the Girl-Child education programmes across the country.
This concept led to the establishment of 116 almajiri schools across the country with Zamfara getting the highest number of 10schools, followed by Kano with nine, while Katsina had eight, and so on.
The book also highlighted on page 88 that Ruqayyatu’s era saw the revitalisation of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE), which had gone into oblivion over the years. Thus, the introduction, development and adoption of National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF), brought together the inclusion of Manufacturing, Agriculture, Hotel and Management, Information and Communication Technology, Transportation and Construction to part of beneficiaries of the NVQF.
On page 97, the book talks about Teacher Education and Development, emphasizing on teacher education curriculum development for Early Child Care Education, Primary Education Studies, Junior Secondary Education Adult and Non-Formal Education and Special Needs Education.
The new curriculum also figured out Entrepreneurship Education, Environmental Education, HIV/AIDS and Family Life, among others.
The various steps taken on the Strengthening the Institutional Management of Education is found on page 109 of the books. This was focus on the review of the National Policy on Education (NPE) with specific attention on relevance to national aspirations, philosophy and translating policy into action, ensuring proper foundation and character education.
Collaborations and linkages with various institutions within and outside the country brought about the Africa Centres of Excellence programme, the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) programmes of the National Universities Commission (NUC) highlighted on pages 124-126 of the book.
Education funding is major problem of government and this has, on many occasions, led to industrial dispute between institution’s unions and the proprietor of the, particularly, government owned tertiary institutions.
From primary to secondary, here is always dwindling and inadequate supply of funds for the management of education and the book tells us that in Ruqayyatu’s era, there was improved funding of the sector.
On page 161, statistics shows that in 2010, when she was first appointed, federal government budgetary allocation was N234.8billion and increased to N356.4billion in 2011.
Before her departure, he sector received N409.5billion in 2012, whereas it was increased to N437billion in 2013, when she left the system.
Breaking I down at the basic education sub-sector, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), according the book, never relented to providing matching grants to states to facilitate the development of their basic education, particularly in physical infrastructure. This is captured on page 160 to 163 and can be deeply consummated.
The tertiary sector of education under Ruqayyatu was not left out. According to page 164 to 215 of the book, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) committed substantial amount of money for the development of infrastructure, research, laboratory and book development.
It is also during her tenure that the Education Tax Fund Act was amended to give more teeth to the Fund to carry out its mandates.
Pages 216 to 268 outline partnership with foreign agencies, particularly with state commissioners of education and International Development Agencies such as UK Department for International Development (DFID), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), among others.
The compilers of the book also identify the Female Teacher’ Teaching Scheme as one of the achievements recorded in the education sector during Ruqayyatu’s era as minister of education.
Form page 269 to 295, the book gives details of Cross Cutting Areas of achievements of the ex-minister in ensuring a befitting library, integrity of examinations, timely release of results, national conference on examination and production of annual reports for the education sector.
The book is concluded with piece of write-up by Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa’I entitled: “The Joy Serving”.
The book is written in a simplified English language, well structured, all colour with pictures of activities during Ruqayyatu’s era and is fit for every school library, shelves of education stakeholders, diplomats, teachers and students at all levels.
Education funding is major problem of government and this has, on many occasions, led to industrial dispute between institutions’ unions and the proprietor of the, particularly, government- owned tertiary institutions.
