The Federal Government has unveiled a report on tracking the Basic Education funds expenditure in Lagos State within the last three years, which was carried out by a non-governmental organisation Human Development Initiatives.
At the launching of the report at the Basic Education National Stakeholders Dialogue organised by HDI on Tuesday in Abuja, the Director of Basic Education, Mrs Folake Olatunji, representing the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Andrew Adejo, said the Federal Government is determined to support schemes aimed at boosting the nation’s basic education sector.
While lamenting the poor ranking of Nigeria in the Human Development Index, Olatunji said the country needs to do more in basic education to achieve the desired position.
“Nigeria’s HDI score (0.539) which is poor compared to many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, indicates challenges in access to quality education and educational opportunities.
” To improve the HDI score, Nigeria needs to focus on increasing access to education, reducing dropout rates, and enhancing the overall quality of education provided,” Olatunji said.
She commended HDI for embarking on the project and said the Federal Government remains committed to ensuring basic education for all.
“The Federal Government provides support to basic education (in states) through fiscal transfers to the states from the UBE Intervention Fund managed by UBEC. The UBE Intervention Fund receives at least two per cent guaranteed of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (total federal government revenue).
The most recent Ministerial Strategic Plan 2019 2022 being currently reviewed focuses on addressing system challenges, entrenching strategic planning, and ensuring results-oriented implementation at the national and state levels.
”Let us all, therefore, stand united in our partnership and work together to create a brighter future for our children,” She said.
On her part, the Executive Director, HDI Nigeria, Mrs Olufunso Owasanoye, said the organisation tracked 2018, 2019 and 2020 Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board action plans and codified the findings into a single report.
According to the report, over N7.4 billion in basic education funds allocated to various projects in Lagos were tracked in the three years, with 2018 accounting for N2.95 billion, 2019 – N3.03 billion and 2020-N1.43 billion.
“This report which is titled: ‘Tracking Basic Education Funds in Lagos State: Blessings and Lessons’, is a chronicle of HDI’s activities, interventions, successes and challenges in the Basic Education sub-sector in Lagos over the past seven years,” Owasanoye said.
According to the HDI boss, the UBE funds tracking project which was made possible with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation and cooperation of the Universal Basic Education Commission and other stakeholders, officially kicked off in 2017 and had been highly impactful.
“The project did not merely focus on engagement with government actors to bring about the needed change, but much more, engaged with community stakeholders including School-Based Management Committees, Parents Forum, Community Development Associations/Committees, among other Rights Holders, to hold the Government to account on matters of Basic Education.
”This multi-level approach to engagement has birthed quite a lot of accomplishments, including local stakeholders now appreciating their roles in the development of basic education; contractors delivering projects in the right quality and quantities; strengthening the capacities of government actors and community stakeholders for effective service delivery in the basic education sector….
“By this project, we have proven that Education for All is indeed the responsibility of all. At the lower rung of the value chain, basic education goods and services got delivered to government schools in the right quality and quantities; defective projects were corrected and government contractors had to sit up and deliver according to projects specifications, knowing fully well that implementing school projects was no longer business as usual.
“The contractors clearly saw community members showing serious interest in projects within school premises,” she said.
Owasanoye commended MacArthur Foundation for its insight and special support through the “On-Nigeria Project” which supported Nigerian-led efforts to tackle retail corruption.
During the stakeholders’ dialogue, the HDI Executive Director said the session was to brainstorm on possible solutions to some of the identified major challenges in the basic education sector across the country.
“In the course of our project tracking exercise over the past seven years, we have encountered some challenges which are not peculiar to Lagos State but cut across States of the Federation.
”Furthermore, early in year 2020 (January) HDI launched a report of investigative journalism research into six years of Basic Education projects implemented in Kaduna, Lagos and the FCT, from year 2010 – 2015; the report which was titled, “So Good, So Bad: state of UBE projects in selected states,” provided insight into some of the major challenges confronting Basic Education in the federation.
”Today, we hope to raise critical points of order and to strategise on the way out of the already identified debacles slowing down the progress of basic education in our beloved Nigeria.
“The output of this dialogue will be presented to all relevant stakeholders at different levels so as to make our voice heard especially towards actualising transparency, accountability and good governance in the administration and delivery of quality, inclusive and equitable Basic Education throughout Nigeria,” she added.
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