States killing primary school education – NUT

The Nigeria Union of Teachers has berated state governments over the poor funding of primary school education in the country.

The union said it was alarmed by revelations from the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission, Dr. Suleiman Dikko, that states could not match the 40 per cent Federal Government grant allocated for the implementation of UBE programmes in states.

NUT Secretary-General, Obong Obong, in a statement on Friday in Abuja, said the union considered the development as a serious indictment on the states, stressing that this best described the lack of concern by them in the development of public primary education in the country.

This, it added, explained why Nigeria could not meet the expected target of ‘Education For All by 2015.’

Over the years, the NUT noted, the FG  had set aside two per cent of its Consolidated Revenue Fund to improve public primary education in the country.

It said it was regrettable that the had failed to access their allocation owing to failure to provide needed matching grants as their requisite counterpart funding.

The union described the shortcoming as a disservice to the development of primary education across the country, adding that the situation had degenerated to a point where school pupils in some states received their lessons under the trees.

The NUT stated that with the increasing demand for quality education and infrastructural development in schools, the reluctance of state governments to access UBE fund and use same for what it was meant for, was a demonstration of gross negligence of their responsibilities to the improvement of education in Nigeria.