‘ Increase budgetary allocation for education’

A group, Citizens Intervention and Accountability Network (CIAN), has recommended a strong political will and large budgetary allocation to address the multiplicity of socio–cultural, political and systemic challenges facing the country’s educational sector.

The group said that it would also help to integrate the 13.2 million out-of-school children back to school.

Speaking in Lagos ahead Presidential Advocacy Essay for all Secondary Schools in the Country, as well as Nigerians in Diaspora, which begins tomorrow, its Director of Information and Strategy, Dr. Candyfidel Onwuraokoye, said Nigeria’s educational system was in crisis.

He cited infrastructural decay, neglect, waste of resources overcrowded classes, as well as poor remuneration of teachers, as factors responsible for the country’s low educational standard.

He said exorbitant charges in private schools, due to inability of government to put public schools in shape, was responsible for sharp practices and official corruption in both private and government establishments, adding that it was worrisome that education took a back seat in the nation’s resource allocation .

Onwuraokoye charged youths to speak out and get involved in nation-building.

Also, the Director of Project, Samson Abraham, said the group intended to intervene in the plight of 13.2 million out-of-school.