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By Gabriel Okoro, Abuja
The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved that subject to the availability of funds, the Education budget be increased from seven percent to twenty six percent within the next four years.
This resolution is in line with the recommendation by the United Nations Education and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) for developing countries.
The green chamber also resolved to hold a one week education summit in January next year to enable stakeholders brainstorm on how to reposition education in the country.
These resolution were sequel to a motion entitled: Need to Reform Nigeria’s Tertiary Educational System sponsored by Mr. Ayodele Oladimeji (PDP, Ekiti) during plenary.
Leading the debate, Mr. Oladimeji noted that the strategic importance of education to any nation cannot be over emphasized being the fulcrum of national growth and development.
According to him, tertiary education is the platform for developing human capital for social, economic and
technological transformation and advancement of any nation. Adding that right to education is a fundamental human right and a tool of attaining not only
academic excellence but also social justice and progress, through which citizens achieve not only personal growths, but also develop their civic and political consciousness.
The lawmaker worried that Nigeria loses a minimum of N1Trillion to Education Tourism annually because about
75,000 Nigerians are currently studying in Ghana, Benin Republic and Egypt, among others.
Mr. Oladimeji said the dwindling of quality of education in Nigeria is making her graduates unemployable.
“No fewer than 1.8million graduates in the country move into the labor market every year with the hope of getting jobs that are not available”, he said.
The lawmaker noted further that numerous problems beset Nigeria’s educational system, leading to poor quality and
exodus of youth from pursuit of tertiary education; these include inadequate funding and infrastructure, epileptic power supply and examination malpractices.
Lawmakers in their debate, agreed that Nigeria’s educational sector needs urgent reform.
They hinted that failing to profer solutions to this will continue to spiral down and Nigerians will continue to spend their hard earned foreign exchange in financing education
tourism.
The House leader Femi Gbajabiamila while reiterating that poor infrastructure affects students learning said it is time we consider education as a privilege and not a right.
He said “when looking at quality education, we have to talk about the quality of teachers”.
For Mr. Albert Adeogun (PDP, Osun), “school buildings don’t make school but students and teachers does”.
“We must address the issue of pricing education in Nigeria. Also parents and government must participate in the education of their children”,he added.
The motion was therefore adopted by the House when Speaker Yakubu Dogara put it to voice vote.
An eleven man ad-hoc committee is to be constituted to liaise with critical stakeholders in the education sector to proffer solutions to the dwindling standard of education in the country.
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