Legal | Policy Insight.
The saying, “Education is the best legacy” is one that has stood the test of ages and remained true over time. Education is the bedrock of growth and development because it produces people who can think independently, rationally assess problems and objectively churn out solutions. Asides from its effect on leaders, it may be the magic wand for grooming citizens who turn out to participate in the positive growth of the nation.
The increasing revolution in education in several parts of the world especially in the age of technological advancement has in a good sense, developed the world’s process of thinking and addressing situations but it has unfortunately also revealed the stunted nature of education policies and actions in many other countries – including Nigeria. Nigeria, for instance, has never allocated the required 15 – 20% budgetary allocation to education and has only come close to this UNESCO requirement in 2015 with the allocation of 10.7% of its budget to education.
In the Appropriation Act of 2021, Nigeria has allocated only 5.6% budget to education – the lowest recorded since 2011. This has come at a time when institutions of learning are starved of infrastructure, teachers have gone unpaid for months and the pandemic now beckons on institutions of learning to adopt high-level technology to make teaching and learning possible.
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Elizabeth Nwareuze | Research Analyst, Education Policy | e.n@borg.re