The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has expressed the federal government’s readiness to commit 25 per cent of Nigeria’s budget to the education sector in the country.
According to the minister, all that President Bola Tinubu is looking for before that happens is justification for the percentage of the nation’s budget to be put into the sector.
The minister said justification to get the federal government to commit 25 per cent of the nation’s budget to education is what he and his team are working on.
He said, “Our government is ready to commit 25% of the budget to education, all the President needs, according to him, are policies that will justify that budget, and that is what we are working on.”
Naija News gathered that the minister made this submission on Saturday at the official launch of the €4O million intervention programme on education and youth empowerment in north-western Nigeria in Abuja.
Speaking at the event, the European Union (EU) Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said its reason for investing in Nigeria’s education sector is because the nation is her strategic partner on the West African block.
She said, “Education is the most transformative sector in which we can invest, and it is the cornerstone for creating resilient societies and finding solutions to the biggest challenges of our time.
“So the EU investment on access, skills and quality education and youth empowerment in north-western Nigeria brings all these different components together. It will be deployed in North-West Nigeria.
“The programme which we are launching today supports access to education for out-of-school children with a specific focus on bringing and keeping girls in schools. It also includes direct assistance to families’ cash, cash, transfers, social protection, income generation, gifts and indirect assistance through agricultural practices. I think it’s important that we are able to provide access to education to each and every child in Nigeria, so no one is left behind.
“Another talk and overall objective of our programme is that it really promotes validated teaching and learning in targeted schools. So it will support child-centred medical, sexual reproductive health racial gender equality training and support community based and state level capacities to deliver on education.”
Reacting to this, the education minister reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to education.
Mamman, in a statement obtained by Th Punch, said, “If our youths are not properly catered for, trained and empowered, we are toying with the future of the country. Not catering for them will allow poverty to grow, and insecurity to foster.
“Our focus is shifting to basic education, out-of-school children, adolescent girls who need to be trained and empowered.”
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