Financing of education in Nigeria: An analytical review

Abstract

In this article, the writer has examined the financing of education in Nigeria. A review of the finances on education since the advent of formal education in the country was made. The sources of financing of education in developed and developing countries were highlighted while the Nigerian external debt stock and the level of debt servicing were given. The study has shown the total revenue accruing to the Federal Government and the amount of money allocated to the education at various periods indicating deficits in the funding of the system. The findings indicated that the funding of education has not been up to 17% in any given year despite the UNESCO minimum standard of 26% of national budget. The writer therefore made suggestions on how to effectively fund education in the country and recommended other sources of funding education for future development.

Between Commoditization and Utilitarianism: Knowledge Production, Historical Scholarship, and Development in Nigeria

“…The advent of popular democracy since 1999 have not been able to substantially alter this trend, as the government struggles to abide by the standard UNESCO recommendation of 26 % of state budgetary allocation to the education sector. Where there have been increases, they oscillate and it seems that there is really no commitment to financing education by the successive Nigerian governments since 1999 (Kpolovie and Obilor 2013;Adeyemi 2011). Arising from this, it has been shown clearly that performance in education in Nigeria declined significantly between 2006 and 2011 with scores declining from 51 to 47.6 % and Nigeria's rank in Africa declining from 21st to 30th.…”

Free Education For The Girl Child In Public Secondary Schools In Nigeria: It’s Impact On Enrolment

“…Another school of thought however argues against the introduction of free education. According to them the cost of running such venture will be too demanding on Nigeria's ailing oil revenue dependent economy (Adeyemi, 2011). According to Dabaleen et al (2000) the standard of education in Nigeria is on a free fall and introducing free education encourages the mass promotion of students from one to another regardless of how they have performed in a bid to save cost which will ultimately weaken the standard of education in the country.…”

Educational policies and programmes implementations: A case study of education funding, universal basic education (UBE) and teacher education

“…The sources of financing education according to UNESCO (1968) is that in developed countries of the world, education is financed with tax but in developing countries other sources in addition to tax can be used. Vaizey (1961) in Adeyemi (2011) argued that education can be financed using school fees, repayable loans, local government taxes, direct tax, indirect tax, property tax for decentralized educational system. Omoike (2013) listed sources of funds for education to include: budgeting allocation, tuition fees, industrial organizations, philanthropists, communities, old students association/ alumni associations, parents-teachers associations (PTA), religious organization, revenue yielding ventures, education tax fund (ETF), school development levies etc.…”