Stakeholders in the education sector have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for increasing allocation to the education sector in the 2022 budget.
They nonetheless asked for more allocation to the sector.
The stakeholders, who spoke in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday, also called for more investment in education to impact greatly on the sector.
President Buhari on Thursday, Oct. 7 presented the 2022 aggregate expenditure, projected to be N16.39 trillion which is 12.5 per cent higher than the 2021 budget to the National Assembly.
From the proposal, education got N1.29 trillion, which is 7.9 per cent of the entire allocation.
A breakdown of N16.39 trillion estimated budget showed that recurrent spending for the projected year is N6.83 trillion, which represented 41.7 per cent of total expenditure and 18.5 per cent higher than the 2021 budget.
From the estimate, aggregate capital expenditure of N5.35 trillion is earmarked, representing 32.7 per cent of total expenditure.
In education, N108.1 billion was provided for the Universal Basic Education, N1.2 billion for rehabilitation of classrooms and hostels, N392 million as takeoff grants for six federal science and technical colleges; N4.5 billion as scholarship allowances; and N2 billion as payment to 5,000 Federal Teachers Scheme Allowance.
The aggregate revealed an increase in the 2022 education budget, compared to the 2021 education budget of N742.5 billion.
Mr Ike Onyechere, Founder, Exams Ethics Marshall International (EEMI), however, commended the Buhari administration saying it was a move in the right direction.
Onyechere said that the education sector required initiatives that would improve the teaching profession and make it more attractive.
According to him, initiatives in the sector required major funding effort to enhance teachers` salary structure and various categories of allowances, bursaries, grants, among others.
“There is also need to invest heavily in improving safe school infrastructure, facilities and tools in the light of the fact that schools have become targets of choice for criminals.
“The crying need to allocate more funds to capital projects, overhead and recurrent expenditures in the education sector is still there.
“It is my considered opinion that the allocation of N1.29 trillion or 7.9 per cent will make very little impact.
“Consider the fact that UNESCO has proposed allocation of minimum of 26 per cent of national budgets to education in developing countries for any meaningful impact to be achieved.
“Consider also the fact that Ghana consistently allocates a minimum of average of 20 per cent of their national budget in the past five years while Nigeria’s average stands at about 7 per cent. South Africa allocates average of 17 per cent yearly,” he said.
Onyechere noted that to deliver on the effort to improve the quality of education in Nigeria, the government must think more creatively on how to improve the budgetary allocation to education.
Also reacting to the budget, a public affairs analyst, Mr Carl Umegboro, commended President Muhammadu Buhari on the budget increment on education, stating that the executive action was a step in the right direction.
Umegboro said that the action of the President showed he clearly understood the challenges facing the nation.He argued that no nation could make meaningful progress without giving critical attention to the education sector.
However, the analyst said that the good initiatives of the president could only be accomplished if implementation would also be followed to the letter, adding that a major challenge facing most good initiatives of the executive was implementation.
“I applaud Mr President for the statesmanship he has displayed by paying attention to the education sector through budget increment.
“However, a challenge facing most executive policies is policy implementation. Thus, if President Buhari can monitor to ensure that the increment does not end in some government officials’ foreign accounts, I believe the action will make a tremendous impact.
“It is no gainsaying that no nation can survive and rise to the peak without critical attention to the education sector, hence I congratulate Mr President for his thoughtfulness and dynamic leadership,” Umegboro stated.
In a similar vein, a Professor of Law and Dean, Faculty of Law, Kwara State University (KWASU), Prof. Abiodun Amuda-Kannike, in reaction to the budget increment on education hailed Buhari.
The don also said that the major challenge hindering the nation from getting to its rightful position on the continent was the negligence of education for years.
According to him, the narrative is likely to change with the attention the president is giving to the education sector.