National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) is the umbrella body of Nigerian students studying in Nigerian Polytechnics, Monotechnics, and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria and in Diaspora. NAPS is the second largest student body in Nigeria.
The association hereby rejects in totality the allocation to Education in the 2018 proposed budget which is 7.04%.
This again has further shown us that the Buhari led Administration has no respect for education in the country and the education sector suffers yet again a much lower allocation which is far less than the 26% of National budget recommended by the United Nations.
The United Nations recommended the budgetary benchmark to enable nations adequately cater for rising education demands which are indispensable. Alas, in the proposal presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, 7th November, 2017, his excellency, president Muhammadu Buhari allocated only 7.04% of the 8.6 trillion 2018 budget to education. The total sum allocated to the sector is N605.8 Billion with N435.1 Billion for recurrent expenditure, 61.73 Billion for capital expenditure.
This is unfair to our generation. It is totally unacceptable and NAPS hereby gives the federal Government and all authorities involved a 14days ultimatum to revisit the budget or face the anger of Nigerian students across the country.
If the older generation enjoyed free and accessible education during their time, it is going to be a crime against us who are the future of Nigeria to suffer and be faced with poor infrastructure, poor education facilities and incessant strikes by our Lecturers. This was not the intention of our forefathers and we will continue to engage the government constructively to achieve the Nigeria of our own.
The total sum allocated to the sector is N605.8 billion, with N435.1 billion for recurrent expenditure, N61.73 billion for capital expenditure and N109.06 billion for the Universal Basic Education Commission.
The allocation is lower than the 7.4 percent the government gave the education sector in the of N7.4 trillion 2017 budget.
The breakdown of the N550 billion allocated in 2017 was N398 billion for recurrent expenditure, N56 billion for capital expenditure and N95 billion to UBEC.
Although the N605 billion allocated to the sector this year is higher in naira terms than the N550 billion allocated in 2017, there is a decrease in percentage terms.
This decrease, apart from expanding the gap with respect to the UN recommendation, is also in spite of the government committing to increase spending on education following a strike from August 13 by the Academic Union of Universities, ASUU, that forced Nigerian universities to shut down until the strike was called off on September 18.
Our university lecturers were protesting poor funding of universities and the failure of government to implement an agreement it signed in 2009 with ASUU to improve facilities and enhance staff welfare at the institutions.
The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities, NASU and the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, commenced a nationwide strike on September 11, although it was called off 10 days later.
In a bid to pacify the aggrieved lecturers and other workers, the government undertook to increase funding of the universities and to implement the 2009 agreement and others, which also increased the financial commitment of the government to the universities.
The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, is currently threatening to embark on an indefinite strike of its own on Monday November 13 unless the federal government pays its 2016 shortfalls and all outstanding arrears.
Apart from that commitment to provide more fund for universities, the government is also under pressure to address the menace of increased number of out-of-school-children through measures that include its social intervention programme.
Acording to UNICEF, Nigeria has about 10.5 million out- of- school children, the world’s highest.
There are serious challenges facing the country, majorly caused by the teeming populace of unproductive and uneducated youths. The government is vividly one without a clear vision of solving problems with pragmatic and long-lasting solutions like enlightenment through qualitative education for the Youth. The level of insecurity is at an all-time high simply because of the profligacy of moral values, unemployment and poverty. We can all trace the problems that threaten the peace of our dear nation to the lack of proper education.
Let it be known that where we do not teach our children how to get results through the pen, they would resort to the violent and all-damaging use of guns. This year alone, virtually all levels of education have experienced strike actions to the detriment of the students. Unity schools are just heading out of long time industrial action, just like universities and we can bet our lives on it that polytechnic teachers are not comfortable with the lackadaisical poise of the federal government towards the implementation of the previous agreements. They are warming up for a strike action soon.
The federal government touts the National Economic Growth and Recovery Plan, like it is the elixir to all the problems of the nation, even though we are experiencing a very slow pace of economic growth. They have quickly forgotten that leaving legacies in the hands of poorly educated successors ensures the retrogression of these legacies.
Quality education is our RIGHT AND NOT A PRIVILEGE. It beats our imagination to learn how much Nigerians are forced to pay to get qualitative education outside the shores of the country – over 60 billion dollars per year at the detriment of our comatose education sector. The children of the affluent can afford to flee the country, but the children of the masses; who are forced to live within the minimum wage of 18,000 Naira are disadvantaged. These children would not just serve as liabilities to the nation but their incompetence would stunt economic growth.
We are very unhappy with the avid disdain for over 40 million Nigerian students. A meagre 7.04 percent of the 8.6 trillion Naira budget is an injustice to us and we reject it in totality.
