Abuja, May 31, 2023(NAN) The Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) has urged President Bola Tinubu to tackle the crisis in the education sector.
The Policy Advisor, CSACEFA, Mrs Odinakachi Ahanonu, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ahanonu said that the organisation had developed a six-point agenda that would help the president address the prevailing problems in the sector.
According to her, the position papers, policy analyses and advocacies aim at addressing salient issues in the education sector.
She said that poor funding was a major problem of education which must be addressed by the new administration.
”The greatest problem facing the education sector is inadequate funding. Over the years, successive governments had performed below the expectation in terms of budgetary allocation to the education sector.
”The budgetary allocation to the sector that produces human capital has remained abysmally below 10 per cent, against the 26 per cent recommended by UNESCO.
” This poor funding of education usually leads to low quality education which will also impinge on the standard of education,” she said.
The policy advisor said that corruption and mismanagement of budgetary allocation were other challenges as the amount budgeted always ends up in private pockets of government officials, leaving the sector gasping for financial breath.
She also said that lack of political will and commitments by successive governments who make empty promises to uplift the education sector should be tackled.
”For example, the present administration in the global education summit on financing Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2021-2025 in the UK pledged to increase the 2 per cent UBEC fund from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to 4 per cent.
”But the minister of education announced later that the government had increased it from 2 per cent to paltry 3 per cent.
”Also in that summit, the government pledged to increase the budgetary allocation to the education sector by 50 per cent in the next two years but did contrary to its pledge in the subsequent allocations to the education sector,” she added.
Ahanonu called on the president to address the high number of out-of-school children caused by insecurity in the northern parts of the country.
She said the president must ensure a clear roadmap and CSO-driven Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of education projects and programmes towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 4.
She further called for the review of the safe school policy that would give holistic Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) procedures and guidelines in all schools while also investing heavily in education during emergencies.
”This agenda is in line with the strategic directions of CSACEFA as contained in CSACEFA 2023-2027 Strategic Plan.
”This agenda if properly implemented will contribute significantly to addressing the identified problems in the education sector, and may eventually solve them if pursued proactively and holistically,” she said.
