FG moves to increase UBEC allocation to 5%

The Federal Government has announced plans to increase the share of the consolidated revenue fund allocated to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) from two to five per cent, to boost basic education delivery in the country.

Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, who disclosed this, said the move was in line with government’s resolve to ensure sustainable funding of the sector.

Alausa said that with the proposal to integrate secondary education into basic learning, it is imperative to inject more funds into the sub-sector for infrastructural development and teachers training.

The minister said the initiative is in line with global best practices and Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), aimed at ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

He said: “Subsuming secondary education into basic education is necessary to improve access, retention, and completion. It will also allow students to benefit from uninterrupted learning up to the age of 16. This reform will also reduce dropout rates by eliminating financial and systemic barriers that currently prevent students from completing secondary education.

Recall that the House of Representatives had also sponsored a bill for an Act to amend the compulsory, free UBE (Amended) Act.

The bill sought to increase the share of the Consolidated Revenue Fund allocated to UBEC from two to four per cent.

The goal is to ensure that the allocation to education meets the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) recommended benchmark of 15 to 20 per cent of the total budget.

While restating government’s commitment to ensure that allocation to UBEC is increased, Alausa said he would meet with President Bola Tinubu to achieve this goal.

He noted that the 12-year basic education will be free, universal, mandatory and qualitative.

“We already have UBEC that gets two per cent of the consolidated revenue fund and we will seek to increase that to five per cent. A lot of the fund goes into curriculum instruction, infrastructural developments and supporting the students to make them better.”

He added that the funds would be channelled towards strengthening basic education delivery, from infrastructure to teacher quality, among others.

Besides, Alausa said there will be efforts to improve funding, particularly for early childhood education, and strengthen the quality of public schools, to equip students with necessary skills to succeed in life.