President Muhammadu Buhari has proposed a sum of N470 billion for the revitalization of tertiary institutions across the country.
He said the government alone cannot continue to fund tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The President stated this while delivering his speech on the presentation of the 2023 budget proposal before a joint session of the national assembly on Friday.
The President said: “In most countries, the cost of education is jointly shared between the government and the people, especially at the tertiary level. It is imperative therefore that we introduce a more sustainable model of finding tertiary education.”
“It will be wise that government will adopt other measures to properly fund education in Nigeria as said earlier,” he noted.
Buhari noted with dismay the crisis that has paralysed activities in the public universities in Nigeria, saying “we expect the staff of these institutions to also show a better appreciation of the current state of affairs in the country.”
The President disclosed further that “In the determined effort to resolve the issue, we have provided this total sum of 470.0 billion in the 2023 budget from our constrained resources, for revitalization and salary enhancements in the tertiary institutions.”
“I assure Nigerians that the government remain committed to the implementation of agreements reached with staff unions within available resources. This is why we have remained resolute that we will not sign any agreement that we would be unable to implement,” he added.
He noted that, Individual institutions would be encouraged to keep faith with any agreement reached in due course to ensure stability in the educational sector.
Going further, the President also assured Nigerians that the government is equally committed to improving the quality of education at other levels, recently, we implemented various incentives aimed at motivating and enhancing teachers’ development in our schools.
Safe School Initiative:
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari formally signed the programme on 31 December 2019, creating an impression of the government’s commitment to implementing the intergovernmental initiative in Nigeria.
Three years down the line, the government is yet to give effect to an emergency programme that was meant to increase access and quality of education of over 40 million school children.
Mr President in his speech on the 2023 budget said that the government is set ratify the Safe Schools Declaration in 2019.
“We remain committed to the effective implementation of our Safe Schools Policy. A total of 15.2 billion Naira has been specifically provided in the 2023 Budget to scale up current measures to provide safer and conducive learning environment in our schools.
