♧N367, 095,083,451:00 billion total budget.
♧ N26.8 billion for Education.
♧ 26% of national budget is ‘recommended’ by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO as budget for education.
● Nigeria ranked 152/157 In the World Bank Human Capital Index.
● Delta State ranked 8th position on the WAEC chat for performance/states.
The sad truth is that what we have budgeted for education is about 8% of the total budget of the State. While at the National level we have 7%. It is clear already that as a nation and a state, we will never climb the ladder of progress in the local and international rating of our educational infrastructure and human capital development. We need to even know the budget performance of the 2018 Budget and value for money audit for the educational sector. We can use Isoko North and South Local Government Area as case study.
Many schools in rural communities in Delta State don't have school furniture. The number of teachers in the State has dropped so badly that some teachers teach over 5 grades or classes if you like. Many have either died or retired. The vacuum created has not been filled thus plunged our educational system into a state of sorry. No wonder the last Federal Executive Council (FEC) called for a national state of emergency in the educational sector. An emergency situation with such a weak budget for education is like giving a woman N500.00 to prepare four different types of soup with cow leg, cow tail, water antelop and fresh fish.
Investing only 8% of our budget in the very dead educational sector will be an affront on sustainable development goals and growth. With this kind of budget, no state or country can properly achieve any of the SDG 4 targets. It is also not an option to generate the remaining funding requirements for the sector from the Parent Teachers Association (PTA). What is required is for the State Assembly to rework the budget and increase education budget from 8% to 20%.
This increase is very important because when we have a very educated society, the threshold for crime and violent crimes are low. We need this budget to be able to provide school furniture in Emevor Mixed Secondary School where the students scramble for the smallest space on the bare floor as both seat and desks. We need to also drop the number of school dropout and children selling or involving in non educational activity during school hours. The EduMarshal of the programme of the former administration deserves to be reactivated. We need the immediate recruitment of qualified teachers and the training and retraining of the teaching work force in the State. It is only then that the 2019 Budget can be properly called a budget of Sustainable Growth.
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