The Federal Government is reviewing its foreign scholarship and bilateral education arrangements as part of efforts to reduce unnecessary expenditure and redirect public resources towards strengthening Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the government could no longer justify spending scarce public funds to send Nigerian students abroad to study programmes already available in the country’s universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.
Alausa said the review was driven by the need to build domestic capacity and ensure better value for public expenditure.
He said Nigeria had developed significant capacity within its tertiary education system and should prioritise investments that would improve local institutions rather than spend heavily on programmes that can be offered at home.
The minister recalled that shortly after assuming office, he was presented with a proposal involving about 100,000 Nigerian students travelling to Morocco to study courses taught in English, including mass communication and journalism.
According to Alausa, the proposal raised serious concerns because the courses were already available in Nigerian institutions.
He also questioned the requirement for the students to spend their first year learning French before beginning their academic programmes.
“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.”
Alausa said the cost of supporting such a large number of students abroad could not be justified when similar academic programmes were available locally.
He said the government’s approach would focus on strengthening Nigerian tertiary institutions and ensuring that public education spending delivers greater value to the country.
The review of foreign scholarship and bilateral education arrangements is therefore aimed at reducing avoidable expenditure while directing more resources towards developing Nigeria’s domestic education capacity.
