By Elizabeth ADENUGA
The Joint Education Stakeholders Action Coalition (JESAC), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) has decried the decline in the budgetary allocation for the nation’s education sector.
National Coordinator, JESAC, Mr Ike Onyechere, made the disclosure in Abuja on Wednesday.
Onyechere said the level of funding was not enough to resolve the challenges in education, hence the need to look at ways of improving its budgetary allocation.
He said only N3.9 trillion had so far been invested in the sector in the last 10 years, which according to him is not enough to solve the challenges.
“In the past 10 years, over N55 trillion had been budgeted for education and only about N3.9 trillion went into education which is about 7 per cent. This is not too good for the sector.
“One of the things that clearly demonstrate that our political leaders are yet to come to grasps with magnitude of the challenge is the level of funding.
“This level of funding was not enough to resolve the challenges in education. JESAC needs to know which candidates are willing to commit to the minimum of 26% of budget recommended by UNESCO.
“It is time we sit down and look at the matter of strike. There are lots of fundamental things that need to be done in the sector which require funding.
“It is not possible to do some of the infrastructure projects in the sector with the kind of allocation channel to the sector,’’ he said.
On access to basic education, Onyechere said the current reality was that basic education was neither free nor compulsory.
He revealed that over 15million children were out of school in Nigeria, representing a total of 50 per cent of the global out of school children.
Onyechere, who is also the Founding Chairman, Exam Ethics Marshall International (EEMI) added that the core objective of the JESAC initiative was to mobilise its 24 million members to vote for education-friendly leaders.
According to him, the organisation is coming together to vote for leaders who will commit and manage the huge human, material and financial resources required for transformation of the education sector.
He said the organisation was ready to throw its weight behind the most educational friendly candidates in the 2019 general elections.
He said in view of the challenges in the sector, the organisation would hold a consultative forum in Abuja between Dec. 17 and 20 to engage stakeholders in the sector.
He said that the collective action of the stakeholders was needed to move the sector and the country forward.
“Reactions from stakeholders, including political parties and their candidates have praised the initiative aimed at objectively identifying candidates who qualify for support of 24 million education stakeholders.
“This is based on objective assessment of their performance records on education.
“About 2 per cent of the reactions related to the methodology of evaluation; and whether or not education stakeholders “should dabble into endorsing specific candidates and into the political process.
“Education in Nigeria has serious deep-rooted, structural challenges that need to be resolved with bold, courageous and visionary political leadership actions, not routine administrative fixes.
“Education stakeholders have the duty and responsibility of leading the process of identifying of candidates who have what it takes,’’ he said.
JESAC was launched in 2010 as a voluntary political action coalition of 19 education unions and associations in the education sector.
