Quality of teachers employed by the Federal Government in public schools has improved by 91 per cent, Education Minister Professor Ruqayyatu Rufa'i announced yesterday in Abuja while giving a breakdown of achievements in the education sector in the last two years.

Rufa'i while presenting the 2012 implementation report of the four-year strategic plan of the education sector, said at early childhood education level 70% of the teachers were now qualified, 73% at primary level and 91% at junior secondary level.

She said over 200,000 personnel in the sector have completed capacity development programmes during the year including teachers at basic and tertiary levels, education administration and other support staff.

On improving access, she said enrolment in public schools has increased by five million from 2010 till date. She said 88 of the 102 boarding and day schools for Almajiri are due for completion in December while President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered that schools for drop outs in the Southeast be completed within one year.

At the tertiary level, she said eight of the nine new federal universities have conducted their matriculation ceremonies and taken off with a student population of 2,700. The universities were also able to employ 1,000 academic and non-academic staff, among other achievements.

Minister of State for Education Barrister Nyesom Wike said apart from the regular interventions in training and retraining tea-chers, the Federal Government has spent over N12bn in procuring textbooks and library resources for schools in the last two years.

Wike said 72 new libraries under construction at Federal Government Colleges would be completed in the first quarter of 2013.

The Myschool Team.