Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, has revealed that the country’s education sector has lost more manpower than the medical sector.

Prof. Mamman disclosed the development at a three-day stakeholder round table for the critique and adoption of the draft stand-alone national policy on open, distance and e-learning in Abuja.

He said: “The most effective instrument of development of any nation is the education sector. That’s why developed countries like Canada, America, Germany, and several others, are rushing our best brains in the teaching profession, in addition to the medical sector.

“Many Nigerians might not know, or it will be surprising to them to hear that we have lost more manpower in the teaching profession to foreign interests than the manpower that we have lost in the medical profession. This is because their skills are crucial to the development of any country.

He said several policies, academically and otherwise, had been developed to ensure the smooth and effective running of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system of education, thus challenging participants at the meeting to further critique the document and make the necessary inputs to fine-tune the policy document.