The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, has hinted at plans to review the country’ s foreign scholarship arrangements under the Bilateral Education Agreement.

He explained that the Federal Government could no longer justify spending scarce public funds to send students abroad for programmes already available in Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

The minister also announced the introduction of a N 365 m annual National Laureate Prize to redirect resources towards strengthening Nigeria’ s tertiary institutions and rewarding academic excellence.

Briefing journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, Alausa said the review of the BEA was driven by the need to build domestic capacity and ensure better value for public expenditure.

He added that existing beneficiaries of the foreign scholarship programme would continue to receive support until they completed their studies.

He said foreign governments willing to sponsor Nigerian students could continue to offer scholarships, but the Federal Government would be more selective about committing public funds to overseas education.

The minister recalled that he was presented with a proposal for about 100, 100,000 Nigerian students to travel to Morocco to study courses including mass communication and journalism, despite these programmes being available locally.

Alausa said, “Number one, we have all those courses in Nigeria. And yet, number two, they were going to spend the first year learning French before they started the programme.

“So the Bilateral Education Agreement was not making sense, again, to us in government. It was a way to waste government funds. And this President will not waste any public funds.”

The minister also announced that the government had earmarked N 365 m annually for the Tertiary Institution National Laureate Prize to recognise outstanding academic research, innovation and intellectual excellence.

He said the prize would reward exceptional undergraduate dissertations, master’ s theses and doctoral research with strong commercial, industrial and developmental potential.

Special prizes will also be awarded in six areas: engineering and technology, medicine and health sciences, arts and social sciences, agriculture, law, and teaching innovation.

Alausa said the initiative was designed to create a pathway from academic research to innovation, enterprise and national development.

“We want Nigerian students to understand that there is honour in scholarship, opportunity in innovation and national recognition for intellectual excellence,” he said.

The minister said the selection process would be transparent and competitive, and insulated from political, institutional or personal influence.

“Excellence must be the determining factor,” he said.

He added that the programme would be open to students from universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education, irrespective of ownership, with submissions expected to comply with the Nigerian Education Repository and Databank policy.

Chairman of the National Laureate Prize Committee, Prof Sani Sambo, said the prizes would be awarded in two categories within each of the six thematic areas, with the “best of the best” receiving the star prize.

Chief Executive Officer of NERD, Tunji Ariyomo, said institutions across the country would be eligible to participate, and supervisors would be required to digitally affirm that submitted projects were genuinely undertaken by the students concerned. (The Nation)