By Asmau Ahmad
The IA-Foundation, has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to increase the annual budget allocated to the education sector to improve quality of education in the country.
The Founder, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, said this in a statement made available to newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.
Adeagbo commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his pledge at the just concluded education summit in London to double the education budget by 50 per cent in the next two years.
“At the education summit, President Muhammadu Buhari committed to doubling the education budget by 50 per cent in the next two years. The 2021 education budget is N742 billion, which is 5.6 per cent of the total budget.
“Ghana on the other hand has committed to spend 23 per cent of its total budget on education. It would be nice and expedient for Nigeria to also aim close to that figure-bar,” she said.
According to her, the emerging communal conflicts, insurgency, and general insecurity issues in Nigeria have made the number of out of school children spike.
According to UNESCO Institute, 58 million primary school-aged children are not in school.
“Nigeria accounts for one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children,” she said.
Adeagbo, who noted that the Foundation would be joining the global education summit to raise its hands to education, urged world leaders to improve their domestic spending on education.
“This event was to focus world leaders on the importance of improving educational outcomes by ensuring a fully educated workforce, improving educational infrastructure, and increasing domestic spending on education.
“IA-Foundation believes this is a watershed moment for education globally. We can feel the hand of history upon us. It is indeed a game changer and IA-Foundation joins the organisers in raising our hands for education.
“We believe this is a great initiative and long time coming. This is a time for governments all over the world to be intentional about transforming the educational landscape in the developing world, especially for marginalised children of the world.
“The pandemic has exacerbated the need to address this issue hence, this is no longer ‘business as usual,’ but ‘business unusual’,” she added.
Adeagbo noted that government alone could not acutely deliver on all of these initiatives, but assured of her Foundation’s determination to complement government’s action to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.
The SDG 4 is about ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
IA-Foundation is a charitable organisation spearheading effort to bridge the gap for accessing quality education for Nigerian children.
