Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has disclosed that approximately 30,000 Senior High School (SHS) students may be unable to progress to tertiary education following failures in mathematics, and that the government is assessing options to allow them to re-sit the subject before their academic paths are permanently affected.
Speaking in an interview on TV3 on Thursday, Iddrisu said the ministry was examining the financial cost of organising a re-sit specifically for those students to prevent long-term disruption to their educational prospects. “If you are not careful, you may destroy the career path of those young people,” he said.
The minister also provided an update on the government’s tablet distribution programme, confirming that over one million tablets have been distributed nationally, with approximately 680,000 currently activated. He said the ministry has directed that the remaining devices under a 1.3 million unit contract be fully supplied and activated by the end of July.
Iddrisu also confirmed that work is ongoing to revise the national curriculum to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, coding and electronics at the basic school level, building on the Basic Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (BSTEM) programme already under way. On Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the minister renewed his call for a sharply practical orientation, stating that programme delivery should be structured as 90 percent practical and 10 percent theory, and that institutions must be properly equipped to support that model.
