Why Tinubu must increase education budgetary allocation by 20%—Stakeholders

By Ezra Ukanwa, Abuja.

Stakeholders and experts in Nigeria's education sector have called on the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to increase budgetary allocation of education by 20 per cent.

This, they said, would help achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4—universal, inclusive and equitable basic education for all school-age children.

The stakeholders made this call during a conference to deliberate on education leadership and development, organized by Annual School Need Exhibition 2023, ASNE, on Thursday, in Abuja.

Addressing journalists during the event, the Founder & Group Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Wowbii Interactive, Sir Gbolahan Olayomi, saying that despite successive Nigerian governments’ claims to allocate more funds for education, the sector’s budgets have never met international standards.

He, however, highlighted various upheavals hampering the growth of the country, adding that the incoming government must channel huge funds in making technology an inseparable part of the education system in Nigeria.

"Funding is the most critical factor. There's just not enough money. There's also not enough deliberate intention to invest in education, a lot of lip service being paid to it, but not enough going into the sector. Secondly, there's a disconnection between where the world actually is where we are. Education is now technology led globally and you could see that happening after COVID. We couldn't go to school.

"So, there has been a big shift in education. Technology now leads the learning space, so that the investment to be able to drive that is critical. If for any country that wants to be a major player in world affairs going forward you must be leading in technology. Also, the percentage of our budget that should go into education needs to be urgently improved at say 20% going into education at least.

"Secondly, the trickle down effect tracing that fund to make sure that the money that goes in gives us outstanding return for every Naira outstanding return for every Naira spent in education, whether it's teacher training, whether it's curriculum development, whether it's infrastructure, the learning environment itself. When you go and you look at most of our public schools, would you want to send your child to a public school in Nigeria? These are the questions that they need to address urgently", he said.

On her part, the Managing Director, SKLD integrated services,Temilola Adeptun, reiterated the need for the incoming administration to invest in the girl-child, particularly on digital literacy.

Stating that the Northern part of Nigeria has the highest statistics of girls who are out of school, she called on the President elect to put policies in place to make girl child education compulsory.

She said: "They need to put policies in place to ensure that the girl child is allowed to go to school. I visited Rwanda recently and I was told that there is a law that prohibits parents from keeping children at home, whether male or female, and I think if those policies are in place, and they are enforced in the northern part of Nigeria and any other any in any other place, sometimes it's because of poverty."

Also, the founder, ASNE, said that the event was part of efforts to bring together key stakeholders, key decision makers, development agencies, school owners, the private and public sectors to chat a way forward in bettering the educational sector.

She equally urged the incoming administration to "engage people that actually have a stake. Let them work with the private sector and please be committed to education. They must understand the urgency."

With his proposed private funding through student loan I see education getting more revenue