Since the Coordinating Minister of the Economy,
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, presented the 2015
budget estimates of about N4.358trillion to the
National Assembly out of which N492, 034billion
was proposed for education, some observers
have contended that the vote still fell short of
UNESCO’s 26 per cent recommendation and
was not likely to effect change in the troubled
sector. However, former Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof
Peter Okebukola in this interview with UJUNWA
ATUEYI clarified the true stance of the budget.
Okebukola who is also the President of UNESCO
Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI)
Africa and Chairman of Council of University of
West Africa, advised that the budget proposal
be raised to 30 per cent, among other issues.
Excerpts:
THE 2015 budget as revealed by the Federal
Government showed a proposal of N492,
034billion for education out of N4.3trillion
national budget. In the 2011 budget,
N306.3bn was allocated to education; in
2012(N400.15bn); in 2013(N426.53bn); and (N
493b) in 2014 representing 10.7 per cent of the
N4.6tn national budget in that year. Looking at
this analysis, what is your perception about this
trend?
The trend of course is far from encouraging
considering the deplorable state of our
education system. We need to at least triple the
current allocation to shake off the ignoble state
of the system by applying the funds largely to
significantly improve facilities for teaching and
learning, teacher quality and welfare and
curriculum delivery. We need the funds to break
down obstacles to access of over 10 million
out-of-school children. We need the funds to
improve school safety. We need the funds to
improve reading culture among our youths and
for overall improvement in the quality of delivery
of education.
I should stress that the 10.7 per cent you
quoted only gives a narrow view of the
anticipated picture of funding education in
Nigeria in 2015. My research group estimates
the proportion, nationally, to be above 20 per
cent, when we factor in budgets from state
governments and from budgets of intervention
agencies notably the Universal Basic Education
Commission (UBEC) and Tertiary Education
Trust Fund (TETFund).
In 2015, UBEC and TETFund alone will inject
not less than N100 billion into basic and higher
education respectively which are not captured in
the regular national budget which you are
referring to. This is aside from funds which
SURE-P will provide to support education.
We also need to realise that the budget
proposal of N492,034 bn for education going to
the national assembly for appropriation is only
for funding education at the federal level. This
will service only federal tertiary institutions
(about a third of the total number in Nigeria),
104 Unity Colleges (less than 0.002 per cent of
the national total), 25 parastatals of the Federal
Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of
Education itself. Each of the 36 states and the
FCT will also present their education budgets to
their respective State Assemblies. When
aggregated together alongside the contribution
of the intervention agencies, we will have a
proportion in the neighbourhood of 23 per cent.
Does it mean that the 26 per cent United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation is not
realisable?
The 26 per cent figure often ascribed to
UNESCO is mythical. It only exists in the
Nigerian literature on education. I suspect that
it is a figure that arose out of a
recommendation of a localised UNESCO
meeting, which probably held in Nigeria
sometime in the past and does not bind the
entire organisation. I have had to ask two
Directors-General of UNESCO about this figure
and they claim not to be aware of it. For
Nigeria, I believe we should strive for a minimum
of 30 per cent for the next 20 years to clear the
mess in the sector.
Clearly, 30 per cent is realisable for if there is
a will, there is a way. Lip service in funding is
what education generously gets in Nigeria. I am
aware that other sectors such as health,
agriculture and security are important and will
also desire generous funding. What our leaders
fail to realise and appreciate is that education is
the antidote to challenges in all other sectors. It
is often said that education cannot solve all of
society’s problems but without education no
solution is possible.
What we should do in my view is to elevate
funding to education at the federal, state and
local government levels for the next 20 years
with the collateral effect of lowering funding in
other sectors. After 20 years when quality
education is on solid ground for all citizens, the
allocation to education can then slide
downwards for other sectors to enjoy a hike in
their budgetary allocation. It is a matter of
careful planning and continuity in the
implementation of government policies on
education at all levels.
One important point to note as I conclude my
answer to this question is the judicious use of
the funds, albeit meagre, which is allocated and
released for education. There is a lot of leakage
and corruption in the system that the more we
throw money into the sector, the more money
becomes available to be “chopped”. There is the
need, therefore, to install a robust accountability
and probity mechanism into the financial
operations in the sector (and of course, other
sectors) so that as much as possible, all
financial leakages are plugged.
With these allocations, what is the place of
Nigeria (being the Giant of Africa) when
compared to other African countries?
Let me answer this question with some
empirical data. As leader of an African Union-
European Union project, which studied the
quality of university education in 2014, my team
found a generally poor quality of higher
education systems in all 54 African countries
that we studied in comparison with Europe and
North America. Within this gloomy picture, it is
bittersweet to note that the Nigerian university
system rated among the best in Africa. It is
proverbially said that if you have not visited the
farm of others, you will believe that your
father’s farm is either the best or the worst.
Aside from South Africa and Egypt, our data
showed that no other national university system
in Africa matched the quality of curriculum, staff
and students of the Nigerian university system.
At international conferences, Nigerian scholars
are rated among the best in terms of quality of
participation. Students trained in Nigerian
universities are highly sought after for
postgraduate studies in European and North
American universities and during postgraduate
training, they perform among the best.
On the not-so-pleasing side, our data revealed
that relative to many other countries in Africa,
Europe and North America, Nigerian universities
are poor in infrastructure, reading culture is poor
among students and research culture among
staff is weak. If we elevate the performance of
our universities on the variables of quality of
infrastructure, quality of research and improve
reading culture among our students, no nation
in Africa will come anywhere near the tall
standing of the Nigerian university system in
terms of the quality of process and quality of
products.
This is the task for those who will be steering
governance in Nigeria after the February 2015
elections. We need to balance quality with
quantity in delivering university education. The
rate of expansion in enrolment should match the
rate of provision of facilities and human
resources. We need to reduce financial leakages
and profligate spending by political and other
office holders so as to free funds for better
funding of our universities.
If the Nigerian university system is rated among
the best in Africa as you said, despite the
shortfall in funding, what kind of system do you
think we will have if education in general is
adequately funded?
If education in general in Nigeria were better
funded, we will have a country that will parade
the best statistics in the world in health,
education, security, economy, environment,
agriculture, science and technology and in other
sectors. We will have a country, which the
Chairman of the NUC Board while I was
Executive Secretary, Alhaji Maitama Sule,
envisions to be paradise on earth. We will have
a country that will lead Africa to claim the 21st
century. As Executive Secretary of NUC between
2001 and 2006, I confirm that the Obasanjo
administration ensured a huge jump in funding
of our universities which translated to
significant improvement in the global ranking of
our universities in 2007. Since we did this
before, we can do it again across the education
sector.
I should stress that the condition of adequate
funding is only just necessary to make us get to
that dreamland. It is not sufficient. It will
become sufficient when we have truly
nationalistic, corruption-intolerant and God-
fearing leaders at all levels of governance and in
both the public and private sectors. I am not
talking about the president or state governors or
managing directors of private companies. I am
talking about these and all those who are in
leadership including vice-chancellors, principals
of secondary schools, head teachers of primary
schools, heads of academic departments in
universities, polytechnics and colleges of
education. May God give us such worthy
leaders.
Would you say that the present administration
has shown serious attention to educational
development?
No doubt, the present administration has done
well in many areas on education development.
Several areas notably access and quality are
still struggling to be served. You know I am not
a politician but an academic, so I will provide an
unbiased assessment.
Let us take 2014 as example. There were at
least 12 defining events in the education sector
in Nigeria in 2014. It is possible to cluster these
as the good, the bad and the ugly. On the good
and positive entries in the report card are the
improved performance of candidates in the May/
June Senior School Certificate examination
conducted by WAEC; increase in access as
additional 982,000 were enrolled nationwide in
the basic education system and the carrying
capacity of the 129 universities leapt to about
1,000,000. Recall that the present
administration established 12 new federal
universities and the Presidential Special
Scholarship Scheme for Innovation and
Development.
We also had the establishment of more Almajiri
schools to depress the number of out-of-school
children, which was put at about 10 million. The
curriculum at all levels enjoyed some positive
tweaking by NERDC, NCCE, NBTE, and NUC.
NUC’s action was particularly striking in
entrenching an improved entrepreneurship
studies programme in Nigerian universities
whose positive impact showed during the
national entrepreneurship fair in December 2014.
Funding for physical development and research
by TETFund was above the N80 billion mark
during the year. These six events were blue
marks on the report card.
On the “bad” and negative (red) entries in the
education report card in 2014 are four notable
events. The woeful performance of candidates in
the November/December senior school
certificate examination with more than 50 per
cent failing to earn five credits in English,
Mathematics and three other subjects is one.
Also, teacher quality across all levels of the
education system remained generally shameful
and unacceptably low. Quality of buildings and
other teaching-learning infrastructure did not
significantly improve and so is the poor reading
culture among students.
The “ugly” entry on the report card on school
safety has put Nigeria on the dark side of the
world map. This entry includes the alleged
slaughter by Boko Haram of 43 secondary
school students in Federal Government College,
Buni Yadi in February and the abduction in April
of about 200 girls from Government Secondary
School in Chibok. Taken together, the overall
score shown in the education report card at the
state and federal levels is far from the pass
grade. If I were the class teacher of this student
known as Nigeria, I will make the following
closing comments on the 2014 performance in
education: “You need to buckle up next session.
You were rather too laid back with severe
consequences for your future. Work harder in
the area of access, teacher quality and
facilities.”
The 2015 general elections will commence in
less than one month, what advice do you have
for Nigerians as regards electing credible
leaders.
I will advise Nigerians including myself to “shine
our eyes” and not be fooled or hoodwinked by
sweet talks of the politicians who are interested
only in their pockets. We should vote according
to our conscience and in line with what we
believe the politician can deliver by way of
dividends of democracy. This is why education
is important. With a current illiterate population
of about 30 per cent, more will be hoodwinked.
With more money to education, illiteracy rate
will depress and the electorate will be wiser
when casting votes and selecting their leaders.
Written by UJUNWA ATUEYI
http://m.ngrguardiannews.com
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