Education: Expert Canvasses Increased Budgetary Allocation, Efficient Utilisation

–2021 Proposal Still Below UNESCO Recommendation

Poor allocation and utilisation of funds for the education sector remain a setback for progress in the sector over the years, experts say.

The current strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) borders on poor funding of the sector, despite budgetary allocations by the Federal Government over the years.

For example, a General Consultant and Chief Executive Officer of Passionview Solutions Ltd, Zamfara State, believes that for the education sector to move forward, both the university system and government are answerable as to how much funds are disbursed and utilised.

Recall that ASUU Chairman, University of Lagos chapter, Dr Dele Ashiru, had in an exclusive interview with THE WHISTLER, stressed that the government needed to increase funding of the universities for them to occupy an enviable position, comparable to other countries.

“The demands of ASUU before federal government are clear and they are: they should inject money into the university system so that there will be more classrooms, laboratories and libraries for our students, they should renegotiate the 2009 agreement with our members which will increase the welfare of those who are teaching the students and motivate them to teach well and also to ask federal government to send visitation panels to our universities to check corruption and governance issues in the university system.

“Once Government meets these demands, ASUU is ever ready and willing to go back to classroom,” he said.

Checks by THE WHISTLER on the 2021 budget (as captured by Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning), puts N1.13trillion as the sum allocated to the Education sector (less than 10% of total budget), as against N686.8billion of 2020.

The total budget for 2021 stands at N13.08tn.

A breakdown of the education allocation is as follows: N742.52bn for the Recurrent and Capital Expenditure of the Federal Ministry of Education and its agencies; N70.05bn for the Universal Basic Education (UBEC); N318bn is targetted at infrastructure in tertiary institutions via the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund).

Meanwhile, the allocation is lower than the recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for countries.

In a UNESCO report tagged “Education for All, EFA, 2000-2015: achievement and challenges”, it stated that “the High level Group on EFA proposed that governments should spend between 4 per cent and 6 per cent of GNP on education and that, within government budgets, between 15 per cent and 20 per cent should be earmarked for education.”

However, the federal government had explained that the dwindling revenue as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, negatively affected national economy.

“It would be recalled that Mr. President laid the initial 2020 Budget proposal on the 8th of
October, 2019 at a joint session of the National Assembly.

“However, the macroeconomic environment was significantly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, necessitating Mr. President’s presentation of a revised 2020 budget on 28th May, 2020 which was signed into law on 10th July, 2020.

“Interestingly, the 2021 FGN Budget Proposal was also laid on the 8th of October, 2020. This underscores the Buhari Administration’s commitment to firmly return the country to a January December Budget cycle.

“The FGN 2021 Budget of ‘Economic Recovery and Resilience is expected to reposition the Nigerian economy on the path of recover, Growth and resilience,” the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning stated in the 2021 budget document, seen by THE WHISTLER.

On his part, Anyebe Samuel told THE WHISTLER on Saturday that while underfunding of education remains a problem in Nigeria, ASUU should present their scorecard on their efficient management of resources.

He said that the government should do more to support education, but added that university lecturers must prudently manage what has been given to them.

He said that if they did so, the results would show on tertiary institutions.

He added that the union should also think of how they could assist government in generating revenue without exploiting the students and parents or guardians.

“ASUU should see the argument from the government that the Covid-19 is a general pandemic across the world

“Yes, according to UNESCO terms, government has been underfunding education, there is no doubt about it.

“Now, ASUU’s fight in previous years has not worked because the union and the executive usually compromise, even when there was no covid-19, they are always sabotaging themselves, they have always been betraying the trust of Nigerians as an association; they have not been fighting hard like the way they are fighting now.

“This is not the first time Nigeria is underfunding education but the fact is that it is high time for all governing system including the education system to look inwards and see how they can generate ideas.

“They should activate their consultancy department so they learn how to be internally sustained.

“Whether you like it or not, today we have so many criminals in the university system; government releases money and that money is not properly utilized and Government does not have monitoring and evaluation department that monitor fundings to universities.

“The little that has been given how was it utilized? Nigerian problem is mismanagement.

“The argument is that government is underfunding education but what is the education stakeholders looking at to see how they can support or cushion the effect and see how they can manage their system?”