NUT Seeks 20% Budgetary Allocation to Education Sector

Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has called on the federal government to consider increasing budgetary allocation to the education sector to 20 per cent.

This call was made yesterday, at a one-day workshop on ‘Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education’, organised by NUT in collaboration with the Education International (EI), Friedrich and STIFTUNG.

The workshop was for teachers from nine states of South-south and South-east, held in Port Harcourt.

The workshop also noted the need to end the ongoing privatisation and commercialisation of education in the country, adding that it was not healthy for the nation’s educational sector.

The teachers further urged governments at all levels to make better investment in education in order to make public schools lucrative, regretting that proliferation of private schools may have led to the loss of some educational values.

In his remarks, the National President of NUT, Audu Amba, expressed concern with the proliferation of private schools, stressing that education has been turned into commodity only for profit-making.

Amba said: “As we embark on the campaign, we are not unaware of the fact that the country’s National Policy on Education provides for participation of private education providers to complement efforts of government, but what has become worrisome and unacceptable is the ugly trend where education is turned into a commodity for sale with the motive of making profit, coupled with the glaring failure of public authorities to regulate and monitor the activities of non-state actors in order to protect the right to education of our children through the provision of adequate funding and investment in quality public education.

“I wish to specially acknowledge at this juncture the importance of education as a veritable instrument for human capital development and pivot of national development. Our country, Nigeria cannot afford to mortgage the future of our children and youths by failing to accord the education sector it pride of place in the nation’s development agenda. We must brace up as a country to ensure the provision of free and qualitative public education.”

On safeguarding the right to education, Amba demanded an improved budgetary allocation for education, adding that improvement on the environment and learning facilities in the public schools would bring an end to existence of private schools.

On his part, the African Director of Education International, African Regional Office, Ghana, Dr. Dennis Sinyolo, argued that public schools were sustainable because they cater for the needs of everybody irrespective of gender, social class of ethnicity.

Sinyolo, said in many countries, public schools are free, adding that private school are there for profit-making from parents and communities.

He added: “Why we have private schools is that the government Nigeria is not investing sufficiently in education. For example, internationally through the United Nations, nation’s agreed to invest at least 20 per cent of their national budget on education, but the government of Nigeria is investing less than 10 per cent.”

He regretted that Nigeria was the least country in Africa in terms of investment in education, saying private schools were flourishing because the government lacked the will to make meaningful investment in the education sector.

In what appeared like a protest, the teachers displayed, placards with different inscriptions, ‘Don’t Mortgage the Future of our Children’, ‘Say no to Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education,’ ‘Education is not a Tradable Commodity, Shun Commercialisation of Education,’ ‘Education is a Common Good, Support Quality Public Education for All,” and others.