By Progress Godfrey, Abuja
Stakeholders in the education sector have urged the Federal and State government to improve the standard of primary education in Nigeria through improved funding, and monitoring of qualified personnel.
The stakeholders made this call during a presentation of Basic Education Performance Ranking for the 36 States and the FCT in Abuja on Tuesday.
Quality
Speaking at the event, the Executive Director of YouthHubAfrica, Rotimi Olawale, said that despite efforts by governments, data shows that primary education in Nigeria suffered setbacks in various areas.
He claimed that just a few states in Nigeria provided primary education up to par with the rest of the world.
Rotimi urged the state government to go beyond the simple construction and commissioning of schools by achieving the goal of providing learners with high-quality education.
The Executive Director however emphasized that the initiative is not intended to put the government in the public eye.
Programs Officer at the Replanting Education Initiative Blessing Tarfa said in addition that, only 6 states were able to reach the 7.5% budget allocation in education, while also noting that 29 states did not meet the requirement at all.
According to the report launched, Gombe, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara did not score any point which means the states did not meet the minimum basic education recommendations, while the best performing eleven States are Ondo with 98%, Ebonyi 90% , Rivers 85% amongst others.
Victor Arokoyo, the director of programs for Christian Aid, said the report would serve as an advocacy tool to engage those in government to start seeing education as very critical to national development and to reduce the issues of poverty in the country.
He worried that from the findings of the report, states that had enough schools did not enough teachers
“In partnership with YouthHubAfrica, we asking for better funding; not just finding in terms of money, we are defining better funding in terms of how much is budgeted, how much is released and how is it utilized and how de monitor to ensure that it brings about functional education,” he add.
