By Meletus EZE
The Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu, said on Monday that Federal Government was committed to sustained funding of basic education in the country.
Adamu said the funding would be channeled through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to support states in the discharge of their basic education obligations.
The minister said this while delivering a speech at the “2018 Alaghodaro Edo Summit,’’ an event to mark the second year anniversary of Gov. Godwin Obaseki in office in Benin.
Adamu, represented by UBEC Secretary, Mr Hameed Boboye, said the federal government had been providing huge amount of money for the development of the basic education sub-sector in all the states.
He called on state governments to endeavor to set aside counterpart funds to enable them to access the federal government grant to develop basic education in their state.
“I call on all state governments to access their funding through UBEC.
“The federal government through UBEC from 2015 to 2018 allotted N164 billion as matching grant to states.
“Of the amount, N34 billion is for teachers’ professional development; N52 billion for instructional materials and N6.9 billion for special education.
“This funding when fully and properly utilised by states, will make great difference in the basic education sub-sector,’’ he said.
The minister commended the Edo Government’s stride in basic education in the past two years, which placed it among states with lowest number of out-of-school children in the country.
“Nigeria has about 10 million out-of-school children but Edo has the lowest number of out-of school children in the country.
“The success made so far by the Obaseki led administration, is commendable and holds a great promise of moving education to greater heights in the state.
