Eniola Olayemi
There are currently increasing complaints about poor standard of education at a period when globalisation demands much from the educational system in terms of preparation of skillful labour force.
The major challenge of public education still remains the commitment by the government to focus on funding public education to enhance qualitative learning.
Education funding comes from different sources. The major one for all levels of government is public revenue from taxation and proceeds from crude oil.
These funds are reported to be distributed among primary, secondary and tertiary educational levels in the proportion of 30 per cent, 30 per cent and 40 per cent respectively.
To create more awareness on the issue of education financing, with the hope of getting policy change, Action Aid and its partners in December, 2018, held a two day meeting tagged “Breaking Barriers to Education’’ in Sokoto and Lagos.
In both cities, the meetings had in attendance representatives of the state Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Education, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Civil Society Organisations and the Association of Persons with Disabilities.
The Education Programme Cordinator, Action Aid Nigeria, Mr. Laban Onisimus said in spite of the general consensus on the importance of education, many governments were spending less on education.
“People pay taxes for basic services and in most countries around the world one of the first expectations of tax payers is that their government will invest in providing basic education.
“Indeed it is part of the fundamental unwritten contract between citizens and the state that tax money will be spent on providing public schools accessible to all children,’’ he said.
Onisimus said that most of the working population in the country was reluctant to pay their taxes because of the poor quality of public schools and other services in the country.
Onisimus revealed that the Action Aid through the Breaking Barriers Project was working with stakeholders in Lagos and Sokoto to advocate for increase in budgetary allocation to the education sector.
Similarly, Mr. Chinedu Bassey from CISLAC said that poor funding of the education sector has led to under performance in the Nigerian economy.
He noted that sufficient budgetary allocation to the education sector was a problem in the country, especially during election years.
