BudgIT, Basic Rights Watch (BRW), CSACEFA, CODE, and others Call on The Federal and States Governments To Prioritize Education

BudgIT and others task the Federal and State governments to adequately utilize funds for education for the development of the sector. The education budget performance is on a decline as funds targeted to the sector are either not accessed or under-utilized by the state government.
According to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, the number of out of school children as at April 2019 is 10.19 million which makes Nigeria one of the countries with a high number of out of school children. The intervention fund from the Federal Government (UBE fund) is not accessed by states to provide and improve basic education in Nigeria. Prior to the December 2018 UBEC data, the total amount un-accessed by state governments stood at N101 billion which shows the non-political will of the state governments to provide quality basic education for her citizens.
In 2018, the presidency reeled out what the Muhammadu Buhari administration has achieved in the last three years in office. It was observed that little achievements were recorded in terms of funding as promised in the APC’s manifesto which reads “targeting up to 15% of our annual budget for this critical sector whilst making substantial investments in training quality teachers at all levels of the educational system”. Considering the budgetary allocation in the last 4 years (2015-2018) shows that a total sum of N2.07 trillion has been allocated to the sector which stands at 7.67% of the sum of total budget size for 4 years (N26.98 trillion). Disintegrating the allocation into years, the highest allocation the sector has received was N483.1 billion which is 10.8% of the budget size of N4.49 trillion in 2015. The percentage allocation has decreased over the years, 7.9%, 6.2%, 7.1% in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The budget implementation report from 2015 – 2017, shows that capital allocation was N23.5 billion, N35.4 billion, N56.9 billion and N61.7 billion in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. The amount utilized in 2015, 2016 and 2017 are N13.1 billion, N20.8
billion and N31.6 billion despite releasing N13.8 billion, N22.6 billion and N33.4 billion respectively.
Funding plays an important role in the education sector as development are tied to adequate funding. It is necessary to end education tourism and develop ours and one ofthe ways to develop our education system is to develop, fund and implement policies and programmes, and be transparent and accountable on the utilization of the funds to
the citizens.

We task the 9th Assembly to amend the Universal Basic Education Act (2004) to extend its coverage from Junior to Senior Secondary Education (from 9 to 12years) thereby guaranteeing compulsory, free, safe and quality education with increased UBE Fund increment from 2% CRF to 3% and an absence of barriers and hidden costs while providing schools with adequate running costs so as to eliminate the need for hidden fees and levies imposed by school administrators.

Signed:

Tolutope Agunloye
For BudgIT

Damien Mary Adeleke
For: Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA)

Lucy Abagi
For: Connected Development

Austin Ekwujuru
For: Basic Rights Watch

Habiba Mohammed
For: Centre for Girls Education, Zaria

Pamela Okoroigwe (Mrs)
For: Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP

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