It has been stressed that there can be no improvement in access to and quality of education without adequate funding of the sector by all the stakeholders from the federal, state, and local governments.
The assertion was made by former Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETfund), Professor Elias Suleiman Bogoro, at the opening of the 2023 Education Summit organised by the Bauchi State government in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
The summit, which is the first of its kind in the state, has the theme ‘Improving Access and Quality Education’ and will be held at the conference hall of the Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar International Hajj Camp in Bauchi on Monday.
The Professor of Agriculture thereby appealed to the Bauchi State Government to, as a matter of necessity, fix a certain percentage of the state and local government income that will be used for the funding of tertiary institutions in the state.
According to him, the TET Fund was able to record massive achievements in tertiary institutions in the state and across the country as a result of adequate funding by the Federal Government.
Elias Suleiman Bogoro, who is the Chairman of the Education Summit, commended the State Governor, Sen. Bala Mohammed, for allocating 16 per cent of the total amount of the 2024 budget to the education sector.
He, however, urged the government to increase the allocation to the sector in subsequent state budgets.
According to him, “Leadership must accept responsibility for both success and failure in governance. We must refrain from the trading of blame and ask ourselves, What have we done to improve the educational sector of the country because we have no excuse?”
He added that “the northern elites have been privileged to be in charge of the affairs of the educational sector of the country more than the southern part; sadly, we, in the region, have the highest number of out-of-school children.”
According to him, “During my tenure as TETfund Executive Secretary, Nigerian universities in the country were ranking first in the world; this was only possible because we increased the funding for research.”
“There is no alternative for sustaining what TETfund has achieved in tertiary institutions apart from massive investments in funding,” he said.
The University Don also called on stakeholders and civil society organisations to continue to support the Bauchi State government in improving the educational sector of the state, particularly in ensuring that more children gain access to quality education across the state.
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