By MILLICENT IFEANYICHUKWU

Mr. Adeolu Ogunbanjo, Deputy Chairman, National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) has described the Federal Government’s proposed unbundling of unity colleges as an advancement in education.

Ogunbanjo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Lagos that the initiative would create an enabling environment, whereby a child’s area of potential would be captured early.

Recall that the Federal Government had announced that the 115 Federal Unity Colleges in the country will soon be unbundled into basic and secondary schools.

The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, had made this known during the opening of the Annual General Meeting of Principals of Unity Colleges in Abuja on Tuesday.

Sununu clarified that the splitting of the federal government colleges into basic and secondary schools would open the windows to attract more funding that would help the government upgrade infrastructure.

He said It would also address teachers’ welfare, and create employment opportunities, among others.

Ogunbanjo said: “Again, the minister said it will produce a situation where funding will be easier for the first 9 years, and that is a very good development for Nigeria education.

“However, measures should be put in place to ensure that the first nine years of the children’s academic life will be fully funded as said by the authority.

“It is a very good development in the sense that when the federal government unbundles the basic years, that is Primary 1 to Junior Secondary School 3 (JSS), the minister did say that it will add a general skill development into the curriculum.

“Which is a good one, so they will unbundle Primary 1 to JSS3, so the Senior Secondary School 1 to 3 will stand alone but the first 9 years should be made compulsory, for me, it’s reasonable.

“So, we have now separated every Nigeria child to be educated up to the 9th level, meaning that 1-9 should be basic years. So they’ll be concluding the JSS3 with the entrepreneurial course.

“By this, parents will know whether the child can now be sent to a technical college to learn a skill or proceed to the senior secondary where he has learnt then onwards to either a polytechnic or university,” he said.

Ogunbanjo noted that basic literacy must be compulsory, adding, “any parent that doesn’t send the child to school for the basic literacy level must be queried.

According to him, the idea is to make sure that every Nigeria child has the basic literacy, and then can now go on to technical college or to the senior secondary school. (NAN)