NBTE boss decries declining budgetary allocation to education

The Executive Secretary of the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Professor Idris Bugaje, has said the declining budgetary allocation to the Education sector should make Nigerians to cry.

He said the country cannot progress with the current state of poor investment in the sector.

Bugaje said this while presenting a paper, titled: The Role of Technical, Vocational Education and Skills Acquisition, at the four-day 2022 Education Fair organised by the Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA) in Kaduna.

The BNTE boss regretted that instead of improving, Federal budget allocation for education dropped from seven per cent to five per cent in the 2023 budget.

He noted that Nigeria is yet to get a functional education system because the country has not shifted from paper to skills education system.

Bugaje said: “We should be crying over the continued decline in the budgetary allocation to education because, if our Education sector must develop, we must take a lead from Rwanda, which has allocated 14 per cent of its budget to education, unlike the five per cent Nigeria allocated in the 2022 budget.”

The NBTE boss stressed that for Nigeria to be on the path of progress, it must reinvent and invest more in technical education and provide necessary facilities to make the sector more vibrant.

According to him, this is the only way to spread skills acquisition among Nigerian youths.

Speaking to the theme of the workshop: ‘Result-Oriented Approach to Education for National Development, Bugaje said the government and the private sectors must work together to make Nigeria a skills-exporting country, like many Asian countries.

He said: “We must all try to make our country work. The government and private sector must develop skills in Nigeria so as to fill the gap and get a good living. We are now in a skill century.

“We are yet to have a functional education system. So, we must shift from paper to skills education system. We must reinvest in technical education and provide necessary facilities to make them work.”

Reacting to the recent proposal by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to use the trade fair as a film village, Bugaje suggested that it should rather be used as an Arewa Skills Hub.

He added: “Nigeria is not lagging behind in film making but in technology development.”

Education Minister Adamu Adamu, who was represented by the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE), Professor Bashir Usman, said the partnership among KADCCIMA, the NBTE and the National Teachers Institute (NTI), would positively impact the sector.