TheCable

Adamu Adamu, minister of education, says the current administration would need N1 trillion annually to fulfill its campaign promises on education.

Adamu said this on Monday at a retreat of the federal executive council on education at the presidential villa, Abuja.

The minister, who called for a state of emergency in education, said all change must begin with education, because, “if we get education right, other areas of our national life will be right and they will fall in line”.

”I believe that this retreat should end with a declaration of a state of emergency in education so that we can face the challenges frontally and squarely,” he said.

“These challenges are not insurmountable. What is needed is vastly improved funding accompanied by a strong political will.

“The strong political will needed to do all this is present in this government. What this government must now do is to make the funds available.

“Nobody has the moral and resource capacity to intervene promptly, substantially and sustainably in all areas of education provisioning better than the government.

“Unfortunately, from 1999 to date, the annual budgetary allocation to education has always been between four per cent and 10 per cent.’’

Adamu said none of the E9 or D8 countries other than Nigeria allocates less than 20 per cent of its annual budget to education.

He added that even among sub-Saharan Africa countries, Nigeria is trailing “far behind smaller and less endowed nations” in terms of its investment in education.

He said: “If education is weak or dysfunctional, society and its development will also be weak and dysfunctional.

“And all change including our very change agenda begins with education; because it is education that shapes, corrects and restores society. But to be able to restore order to society, education has to be made a national priority.”