Minister laments inadequate funding as barrier to education 2030 Agenda

Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the 63rd Meeting of the National Council on Education (NCE) Ministerial Session, Adamu urged stakeholders in education sector to collaborate and support government to fund education.

He disclosed that the Federal Government committed 6.0% of its 2017 budget to education which he said was below the United Nations benchmark.

He said, “With a population of over 170 million, 45% of which are below 15 years (UNICEF, 2017) the burden on education has become overwhelming on the three tiers of government and resources are spread more thinly, translating into creating challenges in ensuring quality education.”

The minister lamented the situation in the North East Nigeria where there are 100 students to one teacher as against the UNESCO benchmark of 35 students per teacher, as well as students learning under trees, as insurgency deprived children access to education and depletion of infrastructure.

On the expansion of access to all levels of education, the minister said his ministry had fast tacked the implementation of preprimary education and establishment of community based early childcare centers in 16 states to reduce out of school children, and that it had renovated 85 Public primary schools across the country.

Adamu also noted that a total of 31,520 teachers across 27 states had been trained to improve their teaching proficiency.

On the quality of Nigeria teachers, Adamu noted that teacher’s education had been plagued by continuous short fall in funding programmed and projects, the non-implementation of 27.5% teacher’s peculiar allowance by some state governments as a problem.

“In our efforts to improve teacher capacity and professional development, 800 graduate teachers were trained in teaching pedagogy and 813 students graduated with post graduate diploma in education in affiliation of with National Open University of Nigeria,” he said.

In his welcome address, Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, said the Nigerian education had received no lower than 26% of the budget, less than adequate for essential development of the educational sector.

He urged stakeholders to collaborate with government to increase investment in the educational sector, adding that the quality of education is a responsibility of all stakeholders.

“Our nation desires education that is a world model. Education is a worthy investment for any nation that must compete globally,” he said.