HOUSE MAKES CASE FOR YOUTH CORP MEMBERS, URGE MDAs TO ENCOURAGE THE NYSC SCHEME
Members of the House of Representatives have implored the Federal Government to provide reasonable accommodation for Corps members serving the nation under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). They also called on Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and other establishments in the Federal Capital Territory to henceforth give unconditional acceptance to them.
Hon. Herman Hembe advised that Youth Corps members have undergone various trainings in the Higher Institutions and should be deployed to areas where they could be more productive and useful to the nation. He urged the Scheme not to be discriminatory in their deployment across the country; pointing out that most villages are neglected, while some are out rightly rejected by the Corp members due to the harsh, unconducive and demoralizing state of the areas.
Some Members however did caution that passing such resolution negates the principle of fairness upon the grounds that it narrowed its prayers to just Corp members in the FCT, disregarding those serving in other States and Local Governments.
On a similar note, the House has requested the Federal Government to review the institutional framework for planning and administration of Basic and Secondary education as well as the core mandates of the parastatals in the education sector. The House also urged the Governments at all levels to address infrastructural decay in primary and secondary schools and to provide modern teaching and learning resources.
The resolution which came following a motion advocating for the need to arrest the crisis of Basic and Secondary education in Nigeria, sponsored by Hon. Muhammad Usman, also canvassed for direct and increased funding of schools. The mover of the motion averred that a situation where these levels of education are characterized by poor quality of teachers of whom about 25% are poorly remunerated is worrisome.
He informed that Nigeria has the lowest budgetary allocation to education in Africa, being unable to meet the UNESCO bench mark of 27% while decrying the poor performance of Nigerian students in West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations in 2014 and 2015, attributing such massive failure to corruption and examination malpractice across the country.
Meanwhile, the House has passed the 2015 Supplementary Budget of N 574, 532, 726, 857 in concurrence with the Senate version of the 2015 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.