Ex minister vc others call for adequate funding of education

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Ex-Minister, Others Call for Adequate Funding of Education

A former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, has joined other stakeholders in the education sector to call for adequate funding of education in Nigeria.

Adeniran, who was the Minister of Education from 2001 to 2003, made the call at a stakeholders' meeting on education in Abuja, the nation's capital. He said that the country's education system was in dire need of adequate funding to enable it to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

"We need to invest more in education to ensure that our children are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to compete globally," Adeniran said. "The current funding of education in Nigeria is inadequate and unsustainable. We need to increase the allocation to education to at least 20% of the national budget."

The former Minister was supported by other stakeholders in the education sector, including the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Biodun Ogunyemi. Ogunyemi said that the union had been demanding for increased funding of education for years, but the government had not responded positively.

"The government has been allocating too little to education, and this has led to a decline in the quality of education in the country," Ogunyemi said. "We need a significant increase in funding to enable our universities to provide quality education to our students."

The Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Dr. Garba Abari, also called for increased funding of education. He said that education was the key to national development and that the government should prioritize it.

"Education is the key to national development, and we need to invest more in it to ensure that our children are equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to compete globally," Abari said. "The government should increase the allocation to education to at least 20% of the national budget."

The stakeholders' meeting was organized by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) to discuss the challenges facing the education sector in Nigeria. The meeting was attended by education stakeholders, including academics, policymakers, and officials of the Ministry of Education.

The meeting agreed that the education sector in Nigeria was facing several challenges, including inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, and lack of qualified teachers. The stakeholders also agreed that the government should prioritize education and increase the allocation to the sector to enable it to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

In conclusion, the meeting called on the government to increase the allocation to education to at least 20% of the national budget to enable the sector to provide quality education to Nigerian children.