For the nation’s education sector to be competitive and meet global challenges, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday, said the incoming administration must vote a minimum 15 per cent budgetary allocation for the sector for robust development.
It advised the President-elect Bola Tinubu government to see
education as a public good in deference to the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Citing other African nations and their budgetary
allocations, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with The
Guardian, observed that Nigeria’s 4.3 per cent budget for the sector was
unacceptable when compared to Ghana, Kenya and South Africa earmarked 15 per
cent.
He said: “In the Southwest, during the late Chief Obafemi
Awolowo era, they gave more than 30 per cent of their budgets to education, but
successive governments reduced their allocations to the sector. The new government should see education as a
key to the success of any country.”
The union equally advised the incoming administration to
increase education tax by private companies in the region of five and 10 per
cent of their profits, as well as provide the needed funds to rebuild the
sector.
Osodeke suggested usage of proceeds from stamp duty charges
to fund the sector.
According to ASUU, there are some companies and agencies of
government like the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that have so much money.
Osodeke continued:
“During the era of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as CBN Governor, he put one
structure in every federal university in this country, which was called social
responsibility fund. But since he left, there has not been anything of such,
yet the money is somewhere.
“Last year, within six months, we paid over N500 billion to
other countries as tuition, still we have not taken care of our own.
“What we are saying is that government should increase
funding of the sector. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (UNESCO) said 20 per cent should be allocated, but we are only
allocating 4.3 per cent. Tinubu should increase that to between 12 and 15 per
cent, and all the challenges confronting the sector would be resolved.
He urged an end to proliferation of universities, citing
inadequate number of lecturers and lack of resources to maintain the
institutions.