Basic education stakeholders from across Nigeria have challenged state governments to move beyond accessing education funds and focus on using them to deliver better learning outcomes for millions of Nigerian children.
The call formed the central message at the opening of the 30th Quarterly Meeting of the Management of the Universal Basic Education Commission and Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards, which commenced on Tuesday in Asaba, Delta State.
The four-day meeting with the theme, ‘Repositioning Basic Education in Nigeria to Optimise Investment and Impact,’ is to examine how investments in basic education can produce measurable improvements in teaching, learning and access to quality schoolings.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Aisha Garba, raised the alarm on the challenge of unused education funds, warning that money allocated for basic education would have little impact if states failed to deploy it.
She said more than N65bn in counterpart funding and about N267bn in previously released intervention funds remained unutilised.
