Olubusuyi Adenipekun
1 January 2009
opinion
Prominent among the reasons for poor implementation of the various initiatives that have been introduced for the purpose of rejuvenating the nation's education system is unsustainable funding.
For example, more than 30 years after the introduction of the Universal and Compulsory Primary Education (UPE), the education sector at all levels is still characterized by poor performance, and one of the major explanations for this is the crisis of funding occasioned by inadequate preparation of the extent to which available resources could last.
Again, widespread cases of arrears of unpaid teachers' salaries - of up to six months in many cases, frequent industrial disputes and strike actions by university teachers as well as shameful cases of primary and secondary school pupils using tree shades as their classrooms are some of the manifestations of poor funding of Nigeria's education from the mid 1970s into the 2000s.
Certainly, this poor show cannot continue if Vision 2020 of the present administration, which aims at making Nigeria one of the top 20 economies in the world by the year 2020, is to be realized. This is so because any country that wants to be reckoned within the global arena must be outstandingly advanced in education, a feat which can only be achieved by putting in place strategies for sustainable funding of education.
The following options for sustainable funding of education in Nigeria should therefore be of great interest to the newly appointed Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu.
First, the new Education Minister needs to mobilize and sensitize parents towards the necessity for them to carry the cost of tertiary education of their children/wards. Many people have actually been canvassing for the introduction of fees in tertiary institutions, a position which is informed by the reality of limited resources that are available to government.
However, government also has some roles to play which include the provision of appropriate legislative and regulatory framework, as well as the provision of infrastructure and fiscal incentives such as tax breaks.
Again, government also needs to get concerned about ensuring that a greater number of citizens have the opportunity to gain from higher education. Accordingly, such schemes as Open University, e-learning and other forms of long-distance learning should be encouraged.
The option of fees payment at tertiary education level is seen as important because it has been proved beyond and reasonable doubt that educational institutions (primary, secondary and tertiary) which are run on commercial principles are more viable in Nigeria than public schools.
Since existing government owned tertiary institutions still face extreme funding difficulties in having adequate recurrent funding and in maintaining the quality of the physical assets needed to deliver qualitative education, Dr. Egwu needs to consider yet another viable option that would ensure: optimal use of the existing fixed assets of public tertiary education institutions and sustainable funding that would make the fixed assets productive.
This arrangement would be more so desirable if it also helps to address the concern of affordability, particularly for indigent students. The concessioning of the fixed assets of public tertiary institutions to private sector operators is an arrangement which the new education minister could adopt.
Based on proper valuation of the assets, government will definitely get considerable fees, which could be transferred to students in the form of lower charges by the private operators or which could be collected and disbursed by government as subsidies or scholarships to deserving indigent students.
For basic education, the government should continue to play a proactive role in funding and supplying education services. It should mobilize school-age population to undertake education and ensuring that all those so mobilised are adequately resourced to participate.
It should make capital and recurrent costs of providing educational services at basic level available from the public treasury.
In addition, the government should be made to realise the need to provide the enabling environment to encourage private sector investment in basic education.
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