By Adesina Wahab, Education Editor

Despite significant increase in Federal Government’s budget since the administration of President Bola Tinubu took over three years ago, the allocation to education is yet to reach the two digit percentage. This year, out of the N68.37 trillion the government hopes to spend, only N3.52 trillion, a little over seven percent, was allocated to the sector.

However, this does not mean that the administration has not done some significant things, though it has also got criticisms and flak regarding some policies people see as unnecessary and not workable. Just recently, the FG came under attack for the proposal to exclude admission seekers into Colleges of Education from writing the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, UTME, conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB. While it is true that many candidates seeking admission to tertiary institutions shun education courses and even the Colleges of Education, many see the proposal as trying to kill a fly with the sledge hammer.

Commenting on the development, a former newspaper editor, Bola Bolawole, wrote, “In fact, critics have argued that the policy will be counter-productive in the end; as it will be seen as delisting the colleges of education from the elite class of institutions of higher learning that write UTME. And this will further add to the misery of the education sector, not only at the College of Education level but also at the university level.”

The situation is almost similar to the flak the government got when it said last year that Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, SSCE, conducted by the West African Examinations Council, WAEC and the National Examinations Council, NECO, would turn to computer-based test, CBT, format. While the examination bodies and the government exuded confidence that it would work, the avalanche of criticisms of the policy and even the intervention of the National Assembly led to its suspension. As fate would have it, last year’s SSCE by WAEC recorded serious hiccups, leading to some candidates writing some papers in the dead of the night. Many believe that given the state of infrastructure and technology in the country, it would be a Herculean task to implement such a policy.

While the country has some challenges to contend with in the education sector such as the menace of out-of-school children, inadequate facilities and teachers, outdated curriculum among others, it is not that the government has not made some impact.

The incessant industrial actions by academic and non-academic staff in universities especially, appeared to have been tamed with the signing of agreements with the various staff unions. Although, some of the unions are still agitating that the agreements are not being implemented faithfully as expected, surely academic sessions have been stable since 2023.

The administration scored a great goal by the focus on vocational and technical education where all federal technical colleges started free education for students since last September. Students there are also given monthly stipend. Also, in conjunction with partners such as the World Bank, the government implements skills acquisition programmes for school leavers. Over N100 billion is said to have been spent on stipends and training fees for participants and their trainers.