By NAN
The Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) has called for adequate budgetary allocation for the education sector to mitigate against out-of-school issues and learning crisis.
The coalition said this in Abuja on Wednesday at an education budgetary processes training workshop, conducted for members of the coalition, drawn from six states and the FCT.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training is with support from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and implemented by Oxfam-Denmark.
The Imo State Coordinator of the coalition, Kenneth Amogu, said the training was apt as it would enhance the capacity of the coalition members to effectively engage with relevant stakeholders.
Amogu also said that engaging with line ministries and personnel with the responsibility of developing the education budget with focus on basic and secondary education, would fast track development in the sector.
According to him, education is not receiving the right attention, as it is supposed to be allocated between 15 to 25 per cent of the total budget.
“We don’t have the required budget for education, even in some states, it’s not up to 5 per cent.
“This training on budget analysis is a very timely one. The education sector needs a lot of focus and presently there is need for us to look at what is being budgeted for in the sector.
“We also must ensure we follow it logically right from the budgeting to implementation,” Amogu said.
He said the right budget will definitely make provision for infrastructure development, teachers training, girl-child and male-child education.
“When all the budgets are made, released and properly utilised, you will discover that education will fare well,” Amogu said.
He added that if adequate provision was not given to education, the out-of-school children numbers as well as learning crisis would keep rising.
Also, Abubakar Isa, a member of Dakkedan Education Development and Humanitarian Support Association, pledged to support the government in closing any gap identified during budgeting.
Isa said that the training would be brought to various states of the Federation for proper implementation and accountability.
In the same vein, the Lagos State Public Relations Officer of the coalition, Chichi Nkire, said the government must be intentional in prioritizing budget allocations across the states.
“It is important that the government across all levels highly prioritise whatever the community or the citizens educational needs.
“Government has not been doing enough when it comes to disbursement and spending.
“It is one thing for them to budget and it is another thing for them to disburse, to release the amount that has been budgeted. This is where they are having issues and it is a big concern for us CSOs,” Nkire said . (NAN)
The participating states in the training are Adamawa, Plateau, Delta, Katsina, Lagos, Imo and the FCT. (NAN)