The Nigerian government has allocated a total amount of N 4.68 trillion in the six (6) years since President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration commenced.
Dataphyte’s analysis into the education budget between 2016 to 2022 shows that the education sector has not received the recommended 15%.
The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) recommended that developing nations should give up to 15-20 per cent of their annual budget to public education. Nigeria’s allocation to the Education sector has not been meeting up with the UNESCO standard, Dataphyte analysis revealed.
The Breakdown
In 2016, a total budget of N6.06 trillion was approved by the National Assembly, N480.28 billion was allocated to the education sector which is about 7.9 percent of the total amount budgeted for the year.
Also, in 2017, N448.44 billion was allocated to the sector, representing about 6.1 per cent of the N7.30 trillion total budgets for the year.
In 2018, the approved budget for the year rose to N9.2 trillion and N651.23 billion which is about 7.1% was allocated to the education sector.
In 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari presented N8.83 trillion estimates to the National Assembly as the year’s budget. The education sector got N745.53 billion, about 8.4 per cent of the total budget.
In 2020, the sector received a total of 686.82 billion, that is about 6.5 per cent of the total approved budget for the year.
For 2021, the education sector received N742.52billion allocation which is about 5.6 per cent of the total budget for the year, the lowest budget the sector had ever received compared with the previous budgets allocated to the sector in the past.
Presently, out of the 2022 budget totallingN 17.13 trillion a sum of N923.79 billion was allocated to the sector. Though the figure increased, the budget is at 5.4 per cent of the total budget approved by the National Assembly. Based on data acquired by Dataphyte, the percentage of the budget allocated to the sector in 2022 is lower than both 2020 and 2021 figures.
Unfulfilled Promises
In July 2021, the Nigerian government had promised, at the Global Education Summit held in London, to meet up with the global benchmark of 20 per cent and to also increase the 2022 education budget by 50 per cent and to 100 per cent in subsequent years.
In the President’s words‘’ we commit to progressively increase our annual domestic education expenditure by 50 percent over the next two years and up to 100 per cent by 2025 beyond the 20 per cent global benchmark .’’
Few months after the promise was made, President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2022 budget before the National Assembly on October 7, 2021. A total of N1.18 trillion, an estimate of 7.2% of the total budget was allocated to the sector. The allocated amount shows that there hadn’t been an increment in the amount dispensed to the sector.
The sector continues to face different challenges which has made stakeholders call on the Federal government to improve funding to the education sector.
In the past few years, the sector has not been adequately funded, and it’s yet to meet up with the UNESCO 20 per cent recommendation for developing countries.
Lack of infrastructure, poor welfare, inadequate staffing are part of the challenges the sector continues to face across primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, Nigeria has one of the largest out-of-school children figures globally. The country ranks 5th with 10.19 million out- of-school children. About 34% of the total children population across the 6 geopolitical zones in the country.
Insecurity across the different geopolitical zones is an exacerbating factor as school infrastructures have been destroyed and schools forced to close down. Kidnapping of pupils from schools is contributing to low enrollment especially in regions prone to terrorist attacks and thus increasing the number of children out of formal learning.
Stakeholders such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics(ASUP), have embarked on several strike actions to show their grievances over the state of education in the country and demand action from the Government.Between 2016-2022, there have been several strike actions by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).