2018 budget: MURIC rejects 7% allocation to education

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has rejected the seven percent allocation to the education sector by President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2018 budget proposal presented on Tuesday before a joint session of the National Assembly. The Group in a statement by its President, Professor Ishaq Akintola, said the seven percent allocation to education was too […]

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has rejected the seven percent allocation to the education sector by President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2018 budget proposal presented on Tuesday before a joint session of the National Assembly.

The Group in a statement by its President, Professor Ishaq Akintola, said the seven percent allocation to education was too meagre, "naïve, perversive and retrogressive".

The group noted that though the budget to education is higher than the previous allocation of six percent, it is still small "because it still cannot scratch the surface, talk less of reaching deep down to make the necessary impact where it matters".

According to him, the present administration like its predecessors is yet to appreciate the enormity of the challenges in the education sector.

He said: "The security implications are serious and this is what the nation faces year after year. It simply means Nigeria needs more universities, more polytechnics and more colleges of education. Can this tight-fisted allocation take care of the problem?"

He blamed the frequent mass failures in national examinations on the failure of successive administrations to invest in education while calling on the government to declare emergency on education, adding that children of government officials must be banned from studying abroad.

MURIC recalled that no Nigerian government has deemed it fit to allocate 26 % of budget to education as recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

It said the country cannot achieve technological breakthrough without qualitative education.