Nigerian Education: Is Funding Really The Problem?

Stella Eze wrote a column in the Nigerian Leadership newspaper on the crisis in education inside the West African state, the continent's most populous.
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Education: Is Funding Really The Problem? .

Thursday, 06 January 2011 05:00
Stella Eze, Abuja
Nigerian Leadership

The education system in Nigeria has a serious ailment, which many perceive could be cured with only more funding. But stakeholders are saying that funding is not the problem of the sector, rather, managers of the industry refuse to get their priorities right, writes STELLA EZE.

Education, specifically university education, has been on the backward movement since the late 1980s. The poor infrastructure and the subsequent dwindling of quality is so glaring that those who have choices opt for the private institutions, where quality is guaranteed. Students struggle to get admission into the limited spaces and have to study under the most non-conducive environment better imagined than experienced. Since universities admit more than their carrying capacities, lecture rooms, hostels and other facilities ache under the surging population of students. Millions of candidates seek admission into the universities but only a few of them succeed because access is still a major challenge. The situation is terrible in virtually all the public universities across Nigeria. The lecturers share their own part of the neglect in the system, as evidenced by the constant tussle between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), of the South-East as well as the Lagos State ASUU chapter presently. State owned institutions in the South-East have been shut down for a complete five month period, while their Lagos counterpart have also downed tools for three months now as a result of failure to honour agreements for a improved funding and better pay package on the part of the government. Facilities such as laboratories, libraries, teaching and research tools are barely available for use by the students as well as lecturers. Learning and teaching condition has become unbearable for those who find themselves in the system under the present condition.

Each year, the sector gets a budget, which always attract criticisms from a cross section of Nigerians. The government on its own part claims it had done so well and deserves commendation for investing heavily in the system. The government has ben accused of not being able to implement the 16 per cent annual budget benchmark recommended by the UNECSO for the education sector. It is estimated that the percentage of Nigeria’s annual budgetary allocation to education sector is less than five.

However, the crux of the matter with the Nigerian education system in the eyes of stakeholders is not the lack of fund, but its mismanagement.

At a roundtable to resolve the FG/ASUU crisis in 2009, stakeholders in the ministry of education had opined that authorities of various tertiary institutions in the country should be held responsible for the rot and lack of infrastructures in the university system. According to them, even if the universities or education system get 100 per cent of what it demanded , the system might not get the desired impact until the culture of accountability and transparency was instituted in these institutions. They gave instances of abandoned projects at various institutions, which nobody got queried for.

Former minister of education, Dr. Sam Egwu had once stressed that university lecturers deserve to earn better than they are currently earning, since they are involved in the production of human resources, needed to drive the economy in the most challenging and dynamic world of technology, Information and Communication Technology,(ICT) and a host of other sophisticated endeavours. Egwu was touched by the meagre pay package they receive, comparing it to what a school drop-out, who forced his way into Nigerian politics, earns. This according to him is a paradox and should not be so. “These are highly intelligent academics that are very productive and efficient in their chosen career. Even school drop-outs who are councillors and local government chairmen earn much more than them. It should be the other way round”, he said.

Another astute believer that funding is not the problem of the sector the Executive Secretary of the Education Trust Fund (ETF), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. He had hinted severally that the federal government has invested heavily in the sector, but the impact is not felt as a result of mismanagement and diversion of funds by authorities in charge of the affairs of various institutions. For him, the school management does not have any moral right to continue to ask for more when they have not set their priorities right. He noted that ETF as an intervention agency still have backlogs of unaccessed funds by institutions who are supposed to come up with bright ideas and proposals to be able to access these funds. How can they ask for more, even when they have not been able to fully access what was meant for them? But the unfortunate thing he noted is that those who are directly involved in academics such as lecturers and the ever agitating unions are not connected with the process of accessing or managing the ETF funds. The school authorities, namely the vice chancellors, university councils, and board members are responsible for accessing, utilizing and execution of these projects.

Instances of billions of unaccessed funds by tertiary institutions due to inability of most of the universities to account for disbursed funds, he noted that the system had been corroded with irresponsible managements, who divert public funds into private pockets. Before the ETF raised alarm of the N22 billion unaccessed funds, over 90 percent of the universities were reluctant to come forward to pick up these funds because of the stringent measures and conditions attached to it. As at today, the response of the universities according to Yakubu has been tremendous as 97 per cent of these institutions have accessed their funds. This was after the ETF published the names of the defaulting institutions.

The major problem facing the sector is gross mismanagement of funds universities get to execute projects, which he said were given wrong priority. For instance, he cited an example of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, which got the funds for development of capital projects like the laboratories and libraries, but instead, diverted them to building of car parks and other ventures of less importance. Some other institutions, which he chose not to mention, whose vice chancellor had continually demanded for approval to buy cars and buses for the institution with their own funds. Such vice chancellors, he said had misplaced priorities, and had chosen to run a transportation company even when the school is in dire need of basic capital projects that would benefit the staff and students such as libraries, laboratories, and other necessary infrastructures. Others he disclosed even chose to build fences and car parks in the face of acute shortage of facilities. Such institutions have not gotten their priorities right, or may have devised it as another means of stealing money, and covering their tracks. He said until Nigerian universities management begin to realize that they have to be innovative in thinking and management of funds, the impact of the investment the government is making would remain unfelt. The ETF he said is refocused with a new strategy of close monitoring to ensure that history does not repeat itself. The Fund is putting the university authorities on their toes, to avoid such cases of misplaced priorities and outright diversion of funds.

Again, at a recent get together with education correspondents in Abuja, Prof. Yakubu said; “before now, I used to think that funding is the problem of the education sector. But you miss the point if you think so. For example, the misplaced priorities presented by university authorities to access funds like university gates, fences, toilet facilities etc, instead of facilities that would impact on students. So we need to think fast and re-prioritise. You will agree that the level of dilapidation is caused by lack of funding, but beyond that, we need to get our priorities right. As strategic plan is what is required. I introduced this idea of each institution developing a strategic plan every year in the process of accessing EFT funds but only a few universities were able to come up with acceptable proposal. Money is there but the problem is what we use it for. You can have enough money but decide to blow it away without achieving anything. We have been organising workshops annually for beneficiaries to be able to get their priorities right in the cause of developing their proposals so as to enable them present a fundable proposal. We always point it out that municipal services are not the duty of ETF. These should be provided by the proprietors of these institutions”, he explained.

Another intervention agency in the sector with similar challenges is the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), through which the federal government intervenes in the basic education sub-sector with the two per cent consolidated revenue. The commission is saddled with the responsibility of disbursing counterpart funds to states, which are in turn required to provide a matching grant of the same amount to be disbursed, in addition to meeting other requirements, like showing evidences of completed projects detailed accounts of how the money was expended. The executive secretary of the commission, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Modibbo had at several fora, appealed to state governments to come forward and access this money, which has been lying idle in the coffers of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

With the scenario painted by the two interventionist agencies, one would not but agree that funding is not the actual problem of the education sector. The level of rot and dilapidation of structures at all levels of education is so glaring that right thinking people would not wait, but grab any opportunity provided in terms of provision of resources for the overhauling of the shameful state of infrastructure.

Learning in most public schools in Nigeria goes on under the most unfriendly situation, and if managers of the system are sincere enough, the available funds could be wisely utilised, without attempts at dodging some into private pockets for the upliftment of the ailing sector.