The federal government has said the implications of Nigeria’s poor Human Development Index (HDI) score of 0.539 compared to many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, indicates challenges in access to quality education and educational opportunities.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew Adejo, said to improve the HDI score, Nigeria needs to focus on increasing access to education, reducing dropout rates, and enhancing the overall quality of education provided.
Adejo stated this during the launch of a report on tracking basic education funds in Lagos State, which was carried out by a non-governmental group, Human Development Initiatives (HDI).
He said the implications of this initiative for Nigerian Basic Education are far-reaching as it demands an increased investment in educational infrastructure, such as schools, classrooms and educational resources.
Represented by the Director of Basic Education, Mrs Folake Olatunji, Adejo said: “By providing conducive learning environments, we empower our children to thrive academically and unleash their full potential.”
Speaking, the Executive Director of HDI Nigeria, Mrs Olufunso Owasanoye, said the organisation tracked 2018, 2019 and 2020 Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) action plans and codified the findings into a single report.
According to the report, over N7.4 billion basic education funds allocated to various projects in Lagos were tracked in the three years, with 2018 accounting for N2.95 billion, 2019 – N3.03 billion and 2020-N1.43 billion.
“This report which is titled ‘Tracking Basic Education Funds in Lagos State: Blessings and Lessons’, is a chronicle of HDI’s activities, interventions, successes and challenges in the basic education sub-sector in Lagos over the past seven years,” Owasanoye said.
She however, disclosed that the UBE funds tracking project was made possible with funding support from MacArthur Foundation and cooperation of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and other stakeholders, adding that it had been highly impactful.
“By this project, we have proven that education for all is indeed the responsibility of all,” she said.
The Director, MacArthur Foundation, Dr. Kole Shettima, said to address challenges at the basic education level, government must ensure it is free, compulsory and qualitative.
“When we say that, we don’t mean the government making a statement saying there is free education, but when you get to schools there are no instruments, no teachers and no materials,” he said.
“The radical opinion is to say all the public servants should make sure that they send their children to public schools. Maybe if we all do that, we’ll make sure that public schools actually work,” he said.
