Nigeria: 2012 Education Budget and its Implications

ANALYSIS

With President Goodluck Jonathan yet to assent to the 2012 budget, concerned education stakeholders have called for the upward revision of the budget to meet the 26 per cent recommended by UNESCO, as the amount voted for education fails to adequately address the funding of the vital sector.

According to a breakdown of the 2012 budget, the sum of N400.15 billion, representing 8.43 per cent of the budget has been allocated to education. Out of this, N345.091bn (82%) was allotted to recurrent expenditure while a meager N55.056bn (18%) is for capital expenditure.

N317.896bn was proposed for personnel cost and N27.192bn was for overheads. Also, the main ministry had a budget proposal of N5.491bn; MDGs N2.173bn; parastatals N5.196bn; universities, N14.411bn; colleges of education, N4.555bn and unity colleges N7.663bn.

The ministry got a total capital allocation of N5.49bn in 2011, out of which N3.688bn was released; total commitment was N3.497bn and actual draw down was N2.699bn.

Disturbed by the huge gap between amount for capital and recurrent expenditure, the Senate Committee on Education has queried the large percentage of the ministry's budget voted for recurrent expenditure to the detriment of capital expenditure for infrastructure in the sector.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Uche Chukwumerije, said the distribution of funds between recurrent and capital poses challenges of slow pace in infrastructural development in the agencies and institutions.

A further breakdown showed that while personnel allocation increased by N38.584bn, overheads got N1.836bn and capital N3.231bn respectively, which Chukwumerije says 'are not remarkable enough to offer great changes from last year's achievements.'

Nigeria's educational system is bedeviled by a myriad of problems, which keeps worsening by the day, all as a result of poor funding.

These include: poor funding; shortage of quality staff; dearth of infrastructure; inadequate classrooms and offices; inadequate laboratories for teaching and research; shortage of books and journals; indiscipline; inconsistent and ill-conceived policies; corruption at high and low places; cultism; irregular payments of salaries; examination malpractices; embezzlement of funds; low staff-student ratios; poor record keeping; fraud and self-deception with regard to accreditation; failure to send staff regularly on short courses to improve and enhance their competences; and, the fact that government often reneges on the mutual agreements between it and the unions of educational institutions.

Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

There is no denying the fact that education is very poorly funded in Nigeria, which is yet to comply with the UNESCO recommendation that 26 % of annual budget be spent on education. Nigeria spends less than 9 % of her annual budget on education. Botswana spends 19.0 %; Swaziland, 24.6; Lesotho, 17.0; South Africa, 25.8; Cote d'Ivoire, 30.0; Burkina Faso, 16.8; Ghana, 31; Kenya, 23.0; Uganda, 27.0; Tunisia, 17.0; and, Morocco, 17.7%.

In the Universal Basic Education (UBE) guidelines, every primary or junior secondary school in Nigeria is expected to have one general science laboratory for elementary science and domestic science; one ventilated improved toilet for a maximum of 40 pupils or students per toilet; and, one teacher to handle only 40 pupils or students in a class. But these criteria are yet to be met due to scarcity of funds.

In some primary schools, pupils sit on the bare floor in a classroom. Most secondary schools lack classrooms, libraries, laboratories and equipment.

In the universities, the scarcity of funds manifests itself everywhere on campus as there are no current books or journals, no laboratory equipment, limited number of lecture rooms, acute shortage of water, no basic chemicals, no specialised chemicals, 'no nothing'.

The situation in our educational institutions will improve considerably if the government spends at least 26-30 % of her annual budget on education.

Teachers in public schools are poorly paid, some are paid N8,000 monthly. Lecturers in our tertiary institutions are also poorly remunerated. The basic annual salary of a professor is N753,549, whereas a professor in Singapore receives ten times the salary of his Nigerian counterpart.

The salaries of educators must be raised considerably as Nigeria has the wherewithal to do so. Pointing out that education is key to the development of any society, the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has called for an emergency action aimed at uplifting the declining standard of education in Nigeria.

According to ACN's National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, "Experts have identified years of neglect of the educational sector, decline in expenditure on education, inadequate attention to policy frameworks, neglect of the welfare of teachers which has triggered incessant strikes, degradation of educational facilities and the massive corruption in the system as some of the factors responsible for the sorry state in which the sector has found itself today."

The Policy Advisor, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All, CSACEFA, Mr. Wale Samuel, said some fundamental rights, such as to education, are expected to be guaranteed and made available through the instrument of the budget.

"It is obvious that government's decision to spend 8.43 % of the budget on education is insufficient to guarantee this right in Nigeria. There is, therefore, the need to close this variance with the 26 % to fast track education-related MDGs."

http://allafrica.com/stories/201204120668.html

shymmex: This budget shows that Mrs. Ngozi is not the saviour Nigeria is looking for.

manny4life:
Before you go hounding down on Ngozi, why don't you take a look at the one she submitted to the President, which was submitted to NASS for review and approval? Everyone blames the woman for everything, she has done the best, she proposed about 28% for Capital Expense, but NASS preferred to reduce it by 10%, so now, it's her fault? You blame her rather than blame your NASS member who approved the budget? SMH, God will surely deliver this woman from the hands of evil, everything that revolves around Nigeria (mostly bad) is heaped on her.

shymmex:

She's part of the problem. If she can't stamp her authority on the government - she needs to resign.

manny4life:

Her authority on who? The president who is her boss OR the lawmakers? If at all anyone is to flex their executive power, it's supposed to be the president who goes head-on with the Lawmakers and NOT the Budget Director nor the Finance Minister. They can lobby behind closed doors, but their jurisdiction ends there.

It's like in the U.S. when Pres. Obama had a budget standoff with Congress, Govt was at the verge of shutting down before Democrats yielded to just a minute portion of the budget. Who's to blame on that? I guess it was Tim Geithner or the Congressional Budget Committee Director that's to blame. They've done their job, they've lobbied, testified before Congress, their job ends there. If at all, Americans were calling their Reps and Senators, holding them accountable should the U.S. not pass it budget that Friday night.

shymmex:

Stop being disingenuous by comparing our house of assembly - to the US congress. PDP clearly are the majority in the Nigerian house of assembly - and Mrs. Ngozi being our de-facto PM - should be able to flex her muscle, if she's sincere. If the same government could cut the oil subsidy with the support of the house of assembly, what makes you think they can't achieve the same with the budget - if they're being sincere?

Stop defending the indefensible - they're all corrupt, and they don't care about the Nigerian masses.