Education
Stakeholders Advocate 20 Percent Education Allocation, Demand Effective Utilisation
Stakeholders in the education sector have reiterated the need to allocate 20 per cent of the national budget to education, while also ensuring full implementation of the allocation.
The National Moderator, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), Mr Duke Ogbureke, said this at the 2023 Global Action Week for Education (GAWE23) in Abuja on Tuesday.
The GAWE23, a Civil Society Dialogue Workshop with the theme: ‘Invest in a Just World: Decolonise Education Financing Now, is aimed at setting the education agenda for the new administration.
Ogbureke said that for development to take place, there was need for the government to budget adequately for education to hit at least the minimum benchmark of 20 per cent of the national budget.
” Our case is peculiar because we have close to 20 million out-of-school children, so you will agree with me that even the benchmark of 20 per cent of the budgetary allocation to finance education will not be sufficient for us.
”This is because already we have the challenge of bringing in the 20milliom out-of-school children into school. So to do that we have to even go beyond the minimum benchmark.
”CSACEFA believe that we have enough resources in the country if our leaders will demonstrate enough political will through effectively and efficiently utilisation of budgetary allocation.
”If 20 per cent is provided, it must be effectively and efficiently used to finance education across all levels so that Nigerian youths can compete effectively with their global counterparts,” he said.
Ogbureke said historically, the budget allocated to education could not improve the sector, hence the need to allocate 20 per cent of the budget to education while also ensuring its utilisation.
He, therefore, charged civil society organisations to hold government accountable in the effective use of budget released for education so that the effect would be felt at all levels.
On the recent students loan signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, he commended the initiative while calling for its adequate implementation so that indigent Nigerians would have access to the loan.
”My challenge with the students loan is in the implementation. If it is effectively, efficiently, transparently and accountably implemented, I believe it would to some extent meet the needs of some indigent students who are members of our population.
” I am hoping that the system will be transparent and monitored so that those who truly needs the loan can access it,” he added.
Also, the Executive Director, Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development, Dr Otive Igbuzor, said the issues of out-of-school children must be addressed through adequate funding.
Igbuzor, speaking on the Nigeria Education Financing and the Concept of Colonisation of Education Financing, said that budgetary allocation to education was poor when compared to other countries.
He, however, said that to get it right in the area of education, the government must give a modern functional transformative education to its citizens that would yield development.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer, Youthhub Africa, Mr Rotimi Olawale, urged the government to ensure that certain percentage from savings from fuel subsidy removal be allocated to education financing.
Olawale said that investment in education as well as the responsibility of education financing lied with the government, while also charging the CSOs to find critical ways to help government in education financing.
In the same vein, the Secretary General, National Union of Teachers (NUT), Dr Mike Ene called for teachers training, especially from the employment level of the teachers, saying doing this would translate to competition in the system.
Ene, represented by the NUT Gender Desk Officer, Mrs Salamatu Aliu, also said that the best students should be sent to the Colleges of Education (COE) so they would come out to be better teachers.
According to her, often times, students who could not get admissions into the universities sought for the last option of colleges of education which is not right.
”There cannot be development in Nigeria if education is not taken proper care of.
”The best students in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) should be sent to the teachers training schools so as to impact the sector but the reverse is what we see,” he said.
The Policy Advisor, CSACEFA, Mrs Odinakachi Ahanonu said that campaigning for the right to education with an opportunity to make targeted efforts to achieve change would transform the sector.(NAN)
The Federal Government has re-established a seven-member renegotiation committee to address the 2009 agreements with university-based unions.Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, at the committee’s inauguration in Abuja on Monday, gave them a three-month deadline to conclude negotiations.
The committee brings together representatives from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU). Others are Non-Academic Staff of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).Mamman stated that President Bola Tinubu’s government aimed to improve the education system and maintain peace on campuses.He noted that renegotiations began in 2017 but were delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.He said that the previous committee, led by Prof. Nimi Briggs, produced a draft report covering significant areas.The minister urged the reconstituted committee to work diligently and produce realistic agreements addressing the challenges facing the Nigerian University System (NUS).Committee Chairman, Dr Yayale Ahmed, appealed to the government to support universities in achieving global competitiveness and to consider lecturers’ salaries as investments.ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, thanked the government and expressed hope that the new committee would succeed where previous ones failed.He emphasised the unions’ readiness to renegotiate, provided the government worked towards a stable academic calendar.(NAN)
The Federal Ministry of Education has announced that the new curriculum for basic education will commence across schools in Jan. 2025.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman disclosed this on Monday in Abuja, at a stakeholders meeting on the implementation of the new curriculum.
Mamman said new curriculum for senior secondary education would also commence by Sept.
2025.He said the new curriculum would address problems of learning crises and employability.
According to him, the new skills acquisition to be introduced would have multiplier effect by equipping students with 21st century skills.
“In the last one year, we have worked with stakeholders to develop a skills framework that will inject skills right from the latter part of basic education to secondary education.
“The whole idea is that, by the time children finished, they should have a minimum of two skills so that they can have a productive life,’’ he said.
The Minister said the meeting was conveyed to discuss the modality and as well tidy some aspects of the curriculum, while also giving timeline for implementation, support, monitoring and evaluation.
He said the next three months would be used for preparatory stage. including preparing teachers guide in using the curriculum.
When asked on the difference between the new scheme and the 6:3:3:4 system of education that also infused skills, he said the problem was the inability to implement the policy.
“The major justification for what we have done has been the inability to implement the 6:3:3:4 system from inception
“The minimum academic standard of 1993 shows a reason for 6:3:3:4 and the Act outlined clearly the learning trajectory of schools in Nigeria.
“It was envisaged that by the time learners finished basic education, they would have acquired skills. Unfortunately, we departed from it,’’ he said.
The Director of Curriculum, Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Dr Garba Gandu, said the new curriculum would provide prerequisite skills and training for global competitiveness.
Gandu said the curriculum is competency and digital based, as it also aligned with Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and (STEAM) methods.
The new curriculum includes 15 newly introduced trade subjects for basic education.
The subjects are, basic digital literacy such as information technology, vocational entrepreneurship skills such as building and construction, plumbing and tiling.
Others are hospitality such as hair styling, make-up and services such as construction, GSM repairs, satellite and CCTV installation and maintenance and garment making, among others. (NAN)
The Zamfara Teachers Service Board said the recent disengagement of the 109 contract teachers by the state government was not based on ethnic, tribal or religious reasons.
The Chairman of board, Alhaji Muhammad Aliyu-Anka, stated this while speaking to newsmen in Gusau on Friday.
The state government recently announced the dismissal of 109 contracted teachers over failure to abide by the government contract policy.
“You know, the disengagement of the teachers was not on ethnic, religious or tribal reasons, it was for the interest of the state.
“You know Gov. Dauda Lawal declared a state of emergency on the education sector of the state.
“The state government embarked on massive infrastructural investment on education across the state,” Aliyu-Anka said
He said that the provision of qualified and regular teachers was necessary to achieve the government’s policy.
He said that some of the teachers had abandoned their contracts and they were teaching at private schools while still collecting salaries from the government.
Aliyu-Anka said, “The board recommended the termination of the contracts of teachers who did not abide by the rules and regulations of the state.
“Many of the disengaged teachers were not attending schools to teach, leaving volunteers to teach the pupils.”
The chairman stated that the volunteer teachers were more qualified and they were not receiving salaries from the state government.
He said,”Considering the roles played by the volunteers in our schools, the state government plans to recruit 2000 teachers to fill the gaps by the disengaged teachers.” (NAN)
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