SCANDALOUS POOR FUNDING: Education gets N4.57 trillion of N61.48trillion budget in 10 years

If President Muhammadu Buhari’s N8.83 trillion budget is passed by the National Assembly without changes, the education sector would be getting its worst allocation in terms of percentages in nine years, according to Sunday Vanguard’s checks.

Buhari earmarked N462.24 billion for education in the budget.

This represents a miserly 5.23 per cent of the budget.

The last time a lesser percentage of the budget was allocated to education was in 2010 when immediate past President Goodluck Jonathan voted N249.09 (4.83 per cent) of the N5.160trillion budget to the learning sector (see table).

This year’s education budget brings the total sum of federal allocation to education in the last 10 years to N4.564 trillion or 7.423 per cent of the cumulative N61.481 trillion.

This falls short of the minimum benchmark of 26 per cent of the national budget recommended by the United Nations (UN) to be devoted to education.

Vanguard, January 6, 2019

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