FG spends N138bn on basic education in 3 years

The federal government said that at least N138 billion has been spent on basic education across the country in the last three years through Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) matching grants. Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, said in a Workers’ Day message, that the amount was released to “help strengthen the education system”. Adamu, who disclosed this at the launch of the National Personnel Audit of basic education in the country,explained that the personnel audit was in line with the provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act 2004, which is “to help establish reliable education data for planning”.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the audit will cover all pupils, students and personnel in both public and private basic education institutions in the country. “It is important to note that since its establishment in 1999, the commission has successfully conducted two national personnel audit in the country in 2006 and 2010 respectively focused only on public schools,” Adamu said. The minister said the audit would also establish strong foundation for sound management information system in the basic education sector.
He added it would strengthen the current National Educational Management Information System (NEMIS), which serves as a key pillar of the nation’s educational planning process. Earlier, the executive secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, had described lack of data as major setback in the education sector. He, however, said that the audit would help to create a comprehensive and reliable basic education data bank in the country, noting that the exercise would not dabble into financial records of schools. Bobboyi listed objectives of the personnel audit to include obtaining reliable data of children of school going age enrolled in basic education schools. Others include obtaining the number and qualifi cation of teaching and non-teaching staff including their personal information and progression in service.
He said the exercise would also provide authentic school mapping of all basic education schools in the country as well as address the challenges of inadequate education data. The minister of FCT, Mallam Muhammad Bello, assured that the FCT administration would support the commission to ensure smooth conduct of the exercise.