EditorFORMER Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Kingsley Moghalu has called for reforms in Nigeria’s education system as prerequisite for effective funding. He described education as panacea for tackling poverty and surest path to development.
Moghalu, who disclosed this at Prime Business Africa’s 2nd Socio-economic and Entrepreneurship Development Series (SEEDS) conference on Tuesday, said education is critical to the development of a philosophical world view/perception. He was the keynote speaker at the virtual event.
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The former CBN deputy governor, now a presidential candidate, praised Prime Business Africa for organising such a forum on Nigeria’s education sector saying that education helps to actualise a vision for any economy.
“Education is funded through federal and state government, especially in the case of tertiary institutions. It is also funded through school fees but how much of funding is put to education from the government?, he asked rhetorically.
Nigeria’s budget for education in the 2021 spending plan is a paltry 5.6 percent.
Moghalu noted that the crisis presently happening in northern Nigeria was largely due to lack of funding for the education sector.
“Only 5.6% of the 2021 budget caters for the education sector, and it is not substantial to cater for hundreds, if not thousands of educational institutions in the country.”
He noted that religious institutions, private investors, and alumni have begun to fund the sector because 5.6% of the national budget cannot address the challenges.
“Most public schools have set high cut-off marks because of inability to admit students in tertiary education.
Moghalu said that “increased funding must go hand-in-hand with fundamental reforms of education curriculum.
“There has to be productive knowledge and skillset; and, for that to happen, we should move 70% of the curriculum to skills that will later become a hustle for students after graduation, because of the high unemployment rate.”
He also advised that manpower and it’s funding be stepped up to eradicate teachers’ distortion of students’ programmes.
“There is no aggregate manpower, only 50% of university lecturers are professors, the system needs to invest in manpower because, if there is proper investment in manpower, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will not have this present argument with government. He added that, if education was not funded, “our children will suffer.”
