With the dawn of a New Year, experts in the education sector have stressed the need for government to properly fund the sector to address infrastructural gaps; return children to school, empower teachers and make public institutions 21st century competitive, OWEDE AGBAJILEKE reports.

As cautious optimism trailed President Bola Tinubu’s signing of the N28.7 trillion 2024 budget into law, attention has shifted to ministries, departments and agencies expected to provide monthly performance reports to the Nigerian public.

One of such ministries is education, where its major highlights for the outgone year was the unveiling of a roadmap to significantly transform the sector.
Christened “Education for renewed hope agenda: Roadmap for the Nigerian education sector 2024- 2027,” it had 24 thematic areas, including taking 15 million out-of-school children back to classroom, recruiting and training more female teachers and teachers with disability in unity schools, developing and implementing strategies for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to improve education, implementing the safe schools’ declaration at all levels, strengthening the education management information system (EMIS) for effective decision-making, reviewing and integrating foundational literacy and numerical skills into the curriculum for learners in non-formal setting, among others.

Although details of the out-of-school strategy are still sketchy, government’s ambitious target implies that 937,500 out-of-school children would be returned to classrooms every quarter. However, it remains to be seen how this would be achieved considering that the present administration returned a meagre 230 out-of-school children back to classroom in its first seven months of assuming office.

Another issue expected to top agenda in the education sector this year is the payment of remuneration of workers in federal institutions without the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

It would be recalled that the Federal Government exempted tertiary institutions from the controversial platform, ending years of endless disagreements between government and unions on the propriety or otherwise of the payment platform introduced in 2006.

Education Minister, Professor Tahir Mamman, who revealed that each institution will revert to the old format of paying its staff, admitted that the payment platform was a monumental failure, as Vice Chancellors of practically abandoned their work to process salaries and recruitment of their personnel in Abuja.

“The basic concern is that universities are governed by laws. And those laws give them autonomy in certain respects, especially in the management of their finances, and IPPIS has sort of eroded that autonomy granted universities in accordance with the Act,” Mamman said.

Nonetheless, lecturers are waiting on the government to bring closure to the matter as they lamented the collateral damage from IPPIS, with salaries and allowances being short-changed. They pointed out that to ensure industrial harmony in 2024, government must take a step further by paying up the shortfalls.

Nigerians also await the Bola Tinubu administration to reconstitute the governing councils of federal universities in the first quarter of this year. Recall that in June 2023, the National Universities Commission (NUC) dissolved the governing councils of all federal universities following the President’s directive.

However, his decision did not go down well with many stakeholders, with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) describing it as “a major setback” for the growth and development of university education in the country. Governing Council is the highest decision-making body of every university.

Also, it was gathered that lobbyists are jostling to be part of governing councils of federal institutions with over 40 universities affected. Investigations indicated that the new appointments would cut across technocrats, traditional rulers, and politicians, among others. Sources disclosed that apart from directly lobbying Tinubu, the lobbyists have also made entreaties to Mamman; Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila as well as NUC’s Acting Executive Secretary, Chris Maiyaki.

Answering questions from journalists in Abuja recently, Mamman explained that the incoming boards would not only invigorate the institutions, but also prioritise implementation of various visitation panels. Also top on the agenda is the failure of some state governments to access about N68 billion trapped funds in the coffers of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), due to their inability to raise the 50 per cent counterpart fund, meant to facilitate access to quality basic education for all.

The commission had disclosed in a letter dated December 11, 2023, that the total unaccessed matching grant from all 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, stood at N68,737,873,073.52.

Stakeholders have expressed concerns that this could hamper Federal Government’s plan to return out-of-school children to the classrooms.

Already, legal luminary and human rights activist, Femi Falana, (SAN), has suggested that the unaccessed funds be used to educate out-of -school children.

He threatened to seek an order of mandamus to compel states and the FCT to access the funds if they fail to do so by January 15, 2024.
Another issue that dominated headlines last year and spilled over to 2024 is the non-payment of three-year salary arrears of over 1,700 teachers of the nation’s Federal Government Colleges (FGC), otherwise known as Unity Schools.

The academic members of staff from 110 unity schools across the country who besieged the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja in November 2023, had lamented that the ministry was yet to pay their salary arrears of over N3.4 billion and first 28 days allowance of more than N500 million.

Although the Director, Human Resources in the ministry, Omotayo Adeyemi, pacified them and assured that the matter would be resolved, The Guardian learnt that two months after, the entitlements remained unpaid. Some of the aggrieved teachers who confided in our correspondent, lamented that they had to buy A4 paper rim, printing inks and cartridges to enable staff of the ministry process and fast track their payments.

Industry stakeholders said the development speaks to the neglect of teachers as Articles 16 and 17 of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) recommendation provided that “adequate grants or financial assistance should be given teachers to enable them follow the courses provided and live decently.”
The challenges confronting the sector have remained a source of concern for stakeholders, who have stressed the need for government to be proactive in measures towards fixing the sector.

National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, noted that the sector experienced no substantial changes in 2023.
He stressed the need for robust political will to revamp the sector, propelling the country towards accelerated growth and development.
Osodeke said: “Frankly, there were no significant changes in the sector throughout the past year. It fell short of our expectations, especially in terms of budgetary allocation. The allocated budget for education remained stagnant and insufficient for transformative improvements. It is not different from what we used to have in the past eight years. Just look at the amount that was allocated to the sector this year, does it show we seriously want transformation?
“The budgetary provision still fell short of UNESCO’s recommended 26 per cent expenditure on the sector.

He cited various challenges, including poor educational environments, inadequate infrastructure, scarce instructional materials, low remuneration for sector employees, and funding constraints as major problems confronting the sector.
Osodeke stressed the importance of government’s actions matching its promises, particularly regarding allocated funds for crucial educational projects, to yield desired outcomes.

He advocated for prioritising education as a vital pillar in national development.

A leader of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Mr. Akinteye Afeez, expressed dissatisfaction with the state of education in the past year, and hoped for the actualisation of government’s promises, including provision of CNG buses, bursaries, and resolution of 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement to prevent strikes in 2024.

“We just hope the policies of government as promised would kick start in earnest. We hope we have also really said goodbye to ASUU strikes and hope for better years ahead. But as far as we are concerned, education in the past year did not fare well,” Afeez stated.

Former Minister of Education, Prof. Chinwe Obaji, called for intensified monitoring and supervision of both private and government-owned institutions to ensure quality education.

She stressed the need to curb exploitative tendencies, citing exorbitant fees charged by some private secondary schools for public examination registrations, and the need for discipline among school administrators.

“I think government must step up efforts in beaming its searchlights on the schools, especially private-owned secondary schools, where some teachers and management rip parents off their hard-earned money in the name of carrying out one academic task or the other.
“Some parents have been coming up with several complaints concerning the outrageous demands made by some of these private schools. The most worrisome is the outrageous fees these schools tend to quote for public examinations.
“In the same vein, such light must also be beamed on public schools, where it has been discovered that some teachers abandon their line of duties to engage in petty trade or other things.

“There must be that passion, dedication and discipline on the side of school administrators as well, not just government alone,” Obaji said.

In a chat with The Guardian, the Director, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, assured that Nigerians should expect a very vibrant education sector in 2024.
He said the 2024 budget is tailored towards energising the sector, stressing that the Students Loan Act introduced as part of measures to address the education funding gap in the tertiary education sub-sector, would take effect this month.
He said: “The education roadmap has been put together. Government is ready to move. The 2024 budget will serve as the mobiliser to implement the programmes that have been put together in the budget, as well as follow-up on the roadmap, policies, and programmes.

“So, Nigerians should expect a very vibrant sector that is set to reduce the number of out-of-school children, liberalise the policy of employment in our tertiary institutions. We expect that with the exemption of tertiary institutions from IPPIS, the sub-sector will function more vibrantly,” Goong said.