President Muhammadu Buhari recently urged the National Economic Council (NEC) to commence the process of providing free and compulsory basic education for Nigerian children as stipulated in the Constitution. Section 18 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states clearly that “Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and provide- free, compulsory and universal primary education.”
Similarly, Section 2 of the Compulsory, Free Basic Education Act states that every government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age.” The President who spoke in Abuja at the inauguration of NEC for the second term of his administration tasked the governors to ensure the entrenchment of basic education by providing schools, teachers and required teaching materials.
For the exercise to be effective, President Buhari also implored the governors to mobilise their local government chairmen to provide the minimum level of education in order to ensure that children do not roam the streets within their first nine years. To ensure the seamless implementation of the policy, the president assured that the Federal Government would assist the states to access the counterpart funding provided by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in order to develop their basic education.
The government also promised to extend the school feeding programme to all the states of the federation to encourage school enrolment as well as enhance the health and learning abilities of school children.
We commend the Federal Government’s resolve to revamp the basic education in the country and urge the state governors and local government chairmen to work in concert with the central government for the success of the initiative. There is no doubt that education is still the best investment any nation can make to improve the quality of life of its citizens.
For the government to enforce the free basic education policy, it must significantly increase its budgetary allocation to the education sector. It must move closer to the UNESCO recommended average annual budgetary provision of over 20 per cent to education.
Unfortunately, past efforts to revamp the basic education did not achieve much. Over the years, successive administrations had paid lip service to education. The neglect of basic education can explain the dilapidated nature of most primary schools and some secondary schools in the country. We want this ugly narrative to change.
Nigeria’s population is currently put at 200 million. It has also been projected that the nation’s population would reach over 400 million by 2050. Children of the basic education age would constitute about 40 per cent of the population. Currently, Nigeria has over 13 million children that are out of school. Therefore, this calls for more investments in the nation’s basic education. There is urgent need to build more primary and secondary schools to accommodate those in need of basic education.
Failure to do this would not augur well for the country. The growing army of unemployed Nigerians is worrisome. The insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and sundry crimes ravaging the country can be traced to unemployment and general poverty in the country. The general insecurity can also be fueled by illiteracy.
For the states and the local governments to contribute meaningfully to the basic education development, there is need to review the nation’s revenue sharing formula so that the states and local governments can receive more revenue.
The current revenue sharing formula, which favours the Federal Government, cannot ensure even development of the country.
Since the provision of basic education is the responsibility of the states and local governments, those tiers of government must be empowered to achieve such objective. With the dwindling resources of the state governments, there is doubt that they can adequately fund basic education without additional revenue from the centre.
Nevertheless, we enjoin the Federal and State governments to muster the financial and political will to ensure that no Nigerian child is out of school. The right to basic education of every Nigerian child must be guaranteed by the government.