The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’l in Abuja reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to improving access to quality education.

Rufa’l, who spoke at the presentation of the ministry’s 2010 score card, decried the lack of access and equity in the education sector, describing this as the biggest challenge facing the sector.

“The biggest challenge in the education sector today is undoubtedly the large number of out-of-school children.

“An estimated number of nine million children are out of school at the primary level and six million at the Junior Secondary School level,” she said.

Rufa’l stressed the need to create and expand more universities to cater for the teeming number of students produced at the secondary schools.

She said the Federal Government was not planning to scrap the 6-3-3-4 system of education as speculated in some quarters but to explore how to enhance and make it more effective.

We are not planning to scrap or abolish the 6-3-3-4 system, in fact nobody can scrap it, we cannot destroy the structure, we are just looking at ways to enhance and make it more effective,” she said.

She said the re-introduction of the Junior Secondary School Component into Federal Unity Colleges was part of efforts to enhance the 6-3-3-4 system and create more access to basic education.

The minister called on stakeholders to show greater commitment to achieving the Education for All initiative and the MDGs.

In a similar development, the minister launched and distributed operational vehicles and copies of quality assurance handbooks to inspectorate offices nationwide.

The vehicles were released to 20 states with a promise that the remaining states would be catered for in 2011.

The benefiting states included Benue, Kwara, Niger, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Jigawa, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Lagos, Ondo, Oyo and Ogun.

The minister also called for better quality assurance, monitoring and assessment while canvassing the judicious use of the vehicles.