The ongoing ASUU strike provides an opportunity to reform both the funding of public universities and how those universities utilize government funds and student tuition. For better perspectives, I'll assess our current practice and then compare with trends in other countries, such as the UK.
Out of the FGN's 2017 budget of N7.44 trillion, N398.7 billion (5.36%) went to education, with University of Ibadan getting N13.15 billion. N12.92 billion of that sum is staff salaries and social contributions. Overhead cost was a paltry N167.36 million, which includes only N6 million for teaching aids and N1.44 million for maintenance of office/IT equipment. UI's capital budget was a princely N64.2 million - for the laying of a water pipe!
The UK's 2017 budget was £802 billion, of which £102 billion (12.72%) went to education.
However, the UK runs a unitary government, unlike Nigeria where states and LGAs also have their own education budgets. But few states allocate more than 6% budget to education, so in relative terms, Nigeria as a whole spends less than half of what the UK spends on education, including projects funded by Tertfund.
In absolute terms, £102 billion is nowhere near N399 billion. It is 100x more with the current exchange rate of £1 to N394. So, the UK spends twice in relative terms and 100x in absolute terms what Nigeria spends on education.
In other words, 200x our education budget. We now see why UK universities always occupy the top rankings of world universities while Ibadan and ABU hardly make the top 1,000.
With the 2017 UI budget for local travel a miserly N0.5 million, I'm not surprised. How much is paid to a director at the Fed. Ministry of Education for local travel in 2017?
We can do better by accepting three realities. We must raise our education budgets to at least the UK standard of 13%. UNESCO recommends 26%, but for Nigeria, that will divert funds from much-needed infrastructure projects, such as power.
We must accept that tertiary education comes at a cost. We can't pay N50K - N500K tuition fees for our children to have good education at private secondary schools and expect them to have quality education at UI or ABU for almost free.
Despite the huge UK education budget, Britons still pay £3,500 - £6,000 annual tuition fees for undergraduate study in public universities.
The only cushioning effect is government loans to students from poor parents, but they must repay the loan once they graduate and get jobs. Nigeria can overhaul its citizen database (eg, making the National ID compulsory), raise university tuition (eg, N200K annually) and adopt a similar policy.
Lastly, universities must account for their expenditures to the smallest detail. If geology students pay N5K to UniJos for excursions, that money should be used for excursions only.
Failing that, EFCC and ICPC should hold the university Senate and council responsible. And when those infractions become too many, the NUC or Minister of Education should have the power to remove the Vice-Chancellor and dissolve the council.
By Dr. Nura Alkali
Comments
Post a Comment