Ebonyi legislators, other key stakeholders brainstorm for state’s education
By Oswald Agwu
Key players in the education sector in Ebonyi State have committed to work together in enhancing the status and quality of public schools in the state.
The commitment was part of outcome of an annual legislative dialogue on education held Monday in Abakaliki, the State capital.
The meeting was organized by a civil society organization, Development and Integrity Intervention Goal (DIG) Foundation and hosted by Youthhub-Africa.
It was part of activities under the USAID Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE ) supported Accountability for Good Governance in Education cluster project.
The stakeholders comprised mainly of State legislators, representatives of the state Ministries of budget and planning; finance and economic development; Universal Basic Education Board, CSOs and the media, among others.
They converged to review issues bordering on Education budget increase, release and utilization, as well as other problems of the education sector in Ebonyi State with the aim of forging ways forward.
All participants were unanimous in identifying inadequate funding and budgetary allocation as the cardinal problem facing education sector in the State. Other issues included poor schools supervision, lack of incentives for teachers and low teacher-pupils ratio.
They prescribed increased budgetary allocation and timely release of approved budget to the sector; enhancement of teachers welfare, training and retraining of teachers and effective monitoring and supervision of schools.
Summarizing the legislators’ position, the House Committee chairman on Education, Alloysius Nwode representing Ebonyi North-west State constituency and his counterpart, the vice-chairman on public accounts, Stephen Aja Igwe, pledged to ensure that every budgetary provision made for education will receive their protection without compromise.
Nwode said: “In the just presented budget to the Assembly, education for the first time received 22 percent of the total budget of the state, and the House didn’t waste time in approving it.”
While commending Governor Nwifuru who they described as education-feiendly, Igwe added: “We will ensure that allocations to the education sector are being supervised thoroughly, and we will not compromise because whatever affects education affects all of us.”
Others who spoke including the Director of Budget, Mrs Chinyere Ituma and the Board Secretary, UBEB, Livinus Ezeuwa said they would use their offices to promote enhanced attention to the sector.
While Ituma assured that increased allocation to the three key sectors of Education, health and Agriculture would be sustained progressively in the years to come, Ezeuwa said the SUBEB would enhance supervision and monitoring as well as ensure proper management of funds for basic education.
He added: “We are committed to revamping the education sector, especially the basic education sub-sector in the state.”
The Executive Director of DIG Foundation while reviewing the issues around education budget in the state earlier, observed that it has been below the prescribed standards.
In a presentation, he lamented the poor education budget performance over the years in the State, observing that in spite of the meagre allocations to the sector, approved budgetary funds were not always adequately released to the sector.
He urged the stakeholders to work towards changing the ugly trend.
