Olaleye Aluko, Abuja
A civil organisation, known as BudgIT, has called on the Federal Government to commit the sum of N1bn, at least, to the review of the curriculum of federal universities in order to make them align with the prevailing socio-political and economic realities.
BudgIT, in its ‘Public Education Financing’ report obtained by our correspondent, noted that the programmes in the various faculties across public universities in the country must be in tune with the skills gap and national requirements.
The BudgIT Coordinator, Oluseun Onigbinde, in the report said, “It is critical to understand the skills need of the economy and how universities are delivering on the skills. We observe that there is a disconnection between what the economy requires and what the universities are delivering. As such, significant fund in the region of N1bn is needed to review the curriculum of federal universities and understand the skills gap in the economy.”
The report also urged the Federal Government to increase its budgetary allocation to the education sector to N2.2trn so as to meet the recommendation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
The report said UNESCO had directed that between 15 and 20 per cent of national budgets should be committed to education.
It noted that the N606bn allocated to education in 2018 fell short of the United Nation’s standard.
“UNESCO recommends that government should commit between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of the nation’s budget to education, if we hope to reverse the trend of decline. Unfortunately, the education sector allocation over the last three years, as a percentage of the federal budget, is falling.
“The 2018 budget of education should be in the region of N2.2trn – not the abysmal N606bn – if the recommendation is to be followed. If the government fails to act now on education, over 20 million Nigerians will have minimal or no skills to compete in an increasingly competitive world. Needless to say, the crime rate and poverty are directly linked to lack of skills and education,” the report added.
The organisation also said the poor quality of education in the country was a result of lack of access to intervention funds provided by the Federal Government.
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