UNILORIN VC Seeks More Funding For Varsities
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Egbewole, has stressed the need for stakeholders in the university system to come together and decide on the conscious effort to increase funding for the university.
Prof. Egbewole made the assertion while delivering a lecture at the second quarter courses 2023 of the Nigerian Army Institute of Science Education and Technology, Sobi Cantonment, Ilorin, Kwara State.
The Vice Chancellor suggested that all the stakeholders including; government, parents, universities/tertiary institutions, private sector, staff unions, students and indeed the administrators of the institutions should come together and take appropriate decisions on the effective management of education in Nigeria.
He called on the workers’ unions to re-direct their energies to the internal workings of their systems and place less emphasis on issues that are not directly related to members’ welfare and be realistic in their approach.
Egbewole stressed the need for a conscious and deliberate effort to increase funding for the educational sector in the country.
The restructuring of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to ensure that educational institutions develop their own budget annually.
The Vice Chancellor noted that education remains an indispensable tool for personal and social development and a crucial tool for human development, adding that it frees the mind from bias and prejudice.
Prof. Egbewole, however, lamented that the glaring consequences of little or decayed infrastructure to facilitate quality delivery are noteworthy of the value-eroded disposition towards education.
He pointed out that with respect to funding, the education sector, in the last
20 years, has lagged significantly behind
the 15-20% suggested benchmark prescribed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Vice Chancellor observed that with the rot in the nation’s educational sector, the 26 per cent of the national budget recommended by UNESCO as benchmark for funding of education will not be enough to cater for the critical needs of Nigeria’s most important sector.
The Professor of Jurisprudence
and International Law observed that while
allocations to the education sector appears
to be increasing in billions of Naira every
year, the reality is shown in the drop in the percentage of budget and the value so
attracted.
He pointed out that in the eyes of
the budgetary provision, “much is given
and much is expected yet, much is needed
as resources constitute a very important
factor in the functioning of the educational system as the success of the system or otherwise depends on the manpower and materials made available”.
While identifying various forms
of corruption in the education sector to
include embezzlement, bribery, fraud, and
extortion, Prof. Egbewole stressed the need
for government agencies to hold tertiary education management accountable for judicious use of allocated fund.
For his part, the Commandant of NAISET, Major General Sani Ibrahim, said the challenges confronting Nigeria’s educational system were both monetary and non-monetary.
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