The Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) on Wednesday told government to increase its education budget allocation to 26 per cent in line with UNESCO’s recommendation.
The National President of the NUT, Mr Michael Olukoya, made this known said that the recent World Children’s Report on Nigeria, announced by UNESCO was incorrect.
On April 9, UNESCO in its report listed Nigeria, Chad, Pakistan and Ethiopia as some of the countries off the six key educational goals in164 countries, achievable between 2000 and 2015.
The report launched in Paris, New York, New Delhi and Santiago, Chile, indicated that Nigeria had the highest number of children out-of-school.
According to the report, the figure represents one of the world’s worst education systems, due to a combination of reasons such as corruption, conflict and a lack of investment.
The six key educational goals in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) include enrolling all children in primary schools; halving adult illiteracy, and ensuring that girls had equal access to schooling.
The report said that half of the countries involved in the poor rating had failed to enroll all children in primary schools.
According to the report, three-quarters of the nations affected by the UNESCO report have not reduced illiteracy and gender disparities are still beyond average at the secondary school level.
While Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Pakistan and Ethiopia were said to be off the 2015 target, nations like Afghanistan, Nepal, Sierra-Leone, Rwanda, Tanzania and India were lauded for their efforts.
Olukoya, however, lauded Nigeria’s education policy, saying that problems occurred with the poor implementation of the policies.
Akinfeleye advised the President-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, to make education his number one priority.
He also advised the in-coming government to increase education budget to 26 per cent as minimum and to also restructure education at all levels. (NAN)
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