FG doubles education budget in 4 years —Shekarau

The Federal Government doubled its budget
for the nation's education sector within four
years, Minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim
Shekarau, said this in Abuja, yesterday while
unveiled new government's plan aimed at
rapidly transforming the nation's education
system.

Shekarau said at the unveiling titled "Public
Presentation of Consolidating Transformation
in the Education Sector" that since the
current dispensation came aboard in 2010,
budget for education in the country had
increased from N234.8 billion to N495.2
billion this year.

His words: "Allocation to the education sector
has increased from N234.8 billion in 2010 to
N495.2 billion in 2014. Intervention funds
specifically to basic and post-basic education
had also been on the rise consistently.
"Intervention funds to states to support
Universal Basic Education, UBE, has totaled
over N240 billion.

At the tertiary level, TETFund interventions to
tertiary institutions have been on the rise
with allocation to each public university rising
from N303 million in 2010 to N912 million,
and from N157 million to N581 million for
Colleges of Education.

"High impact interventions have also seen
selected universities receiving N3 billion each
and polytechnics and colleges of education
receiving N1billion to support their
development as centres of excellence," he
added.

Besides, the minister said the rehabilitation
of laboratories of all 51 federal and state
public polytechnics gulped N15 billion within
the last four years, while over N127 million
instructional materials in the core subjects of
English language, mathematics, basic
sciences and technology were given to
children in primaries one to three in public
schools between 2010 and 2013.

He disclosed that in pursuit of President
Jonathan's agenda for the education sector,
the Federal Ministry of Education developed a
4-year strategic plan for development of the
education sector, running between 2011 and
2015.

The plan, he said, has identified access and
quality as strategic goals of Nigeria's
education, and has provided a coordinated
approach to addressing the challenges of the
education sector over the years. Shekarau
listed government's fresh priorities for the
sector as monitoring and commitment to
safety of the nation's children in schools,
following security challenges in some parts of
the country.

This, he said, will involve providing facilities
for the children to continue their education
where their institutions may have been
affected; and ensuring industrial harmony in
the nation's schools.

The list includes addressing the challenge of
quality of teachers in the nation's schools by
identifying ways of attracting the best brains
into the profession. He said this would kick off
through the hosting of a National Summit on
Teachers.

Posted By David Aniemeka