Stakeholders in the education sector have urged the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration to prioritise investing in the future of Nigerian children by making more funds available to the sector.

They made the call at the maiden edition of the School Leaders Conference organised by the Learning As I Teach (LAIT) Foundation Africa, which was held in Lagos with the theme, ‘Building to Last in a Rapidly Changing Modern World’.

According to the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the foundation, Dr. Abimbola Ogundere, the new administration should strive to meet the UNESCO recommended 15 to 20 per cent budgetary allocation to the education sector.

She said: “The future of a nation is in the education of its people, so it is important to adequately fund the education sector. The first difference we want to see in the education sector under this new administration is improved funding. We know that previous administrations have allocated less than 10 per cent of the budget to education. Increased funding will aid the provision of physical and technological infrastructure, support research and development in educational institutions that will drive innovation across various sectors. Funding will also increase remuneration for teachers, improve their working conditions, and stem the tide of brain drain currently beseiging the teaching profession.”

Dr. Abimbola Ogundere also urged the government to adopt strategies that will ensure Nigeria’s education system become globally competitive such as reviewing the curriculum of colleges and faculties of education to global standards, appointing professional educators in education administration positions such as commissioners and ministers and instituting proper accountability structures in education administration.

Ogundere explained that the essence of the conference was for school leaders to come together to collaborate, deliberate and forge a unified path to ensure that they build lasting institutions in Africa.

“Everything falls on leadership. And as school leaders, we are at the apex of the matter. What I tell people is that a school leader can affect hundreds of lives because he or she is leading hundreds of teachers who are leading hundreds of children,” she noted.

On what informed the theme of the conference, Ogundere explained that there has been a lot of uncertainties, complexities and ambiguities in the world post COVID-19 pandemic, hence the need to brainstorm on how to find lasting solutions to the challenges.

According to her, school leaders must collaborate to secure the future of Nigerian children.

“In the past, this sector has been besieged with a lot of competition. But it is time for us to work together and be intentional about putting the strategies that we know. Sometimes we know things, but we don’t do them. Let us implement these strategies and ensure that we are doing everything we need to do as school leaders for the sake of the children’s future,” she added.

The Executive Chairman of Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Ozavize Salami, who served as a panelist at the conference, also harped on improved funding of the sector.

She, however, noted that over and above more funding is how the funds being currently provided are utilised.

Salami noted that the theme of the conference is very relevant, saying: “Many things like reforms are happening on the government side; new initiatives are happening especially in the education space. We realised that anything we are building today must be in consideration of the future. How is what we are building on the government side sustained for the future, even when governments come and go?

“In Edo State, we have laid the foundation of reforms, which must continue even after the current administration. The conversation is about sustainability in terms of cost implications, among others.”