Former Anambra Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has stated that poor funding of education in the country has continued to stagnate the sector resulting in poor development of the nation, while calling on concerned authorities to see to the amicable resolution of the alleged invasion of Providence High School, Enugu, by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria, (AMCON) on account of debt.

Obi advised that all disruptions of activities of educational institutions by any body of organisation in the country, should be avoided, to avoid further set backs on Nigeria’s education system.

Obi made this known in a message to mark the International Day of Education, celebrated on January 24. He reiterated his stand that education remains a major contributor to national development which if aggressively invested in by the government, would usher the nation into high level development.

Obi lamented that poor funding has continued to tell negatively on the education sector.

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“Highly advanced nations like Norway, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States spend 6.4 per cent, 6.3 per cent, 6.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent of their Gross Domestic Product on education respectively. For seven years counting, China’s government budgetary spending on education remained above four percent of gross domestic product (GDP). And we can see how these nations have continued to enjoy more developments.

“Sadly, Our education investment to GDP in Nigeria have continued to fall below expectations. This has resulted in Nigeria having an army or over 15 million out-of-school children. The few available educational facilities are in very bad shapes with very unfavourable learning environments. How do we then expect our youths to compete with other nations on a global platform?”, Obi said.

Recalling his days as the Governor of Anambra State, Obi said he met an education sector that was almost on life support. But with the massive educational investment embarked on by his administration, education began to flourish in the state.

He called on the Federal Government to see education as the right of every Nigerian child and put measures in place to enable them to have access to at least basic education.