Coalition of Civil Society Organisations on Tuesday advocated for the reform of the Universal Basic Education Act to provide 12 years free and quality basic education to children.
They also called on the leadership of the House of Representatives to speed up the passage of the act to enable President Muhammadu Buhari append his signature.
Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive Officer of Connected Development, in Abuja at a news conference, said the passage would help reduce the menace of out-of-school children syndrome.
The conference has its theme: “Support the Amendment of the UBE Act to Extend Free and Compulsory Education to Senior Secondary Schools (SS1-3)”.
Lawal said that no nation would achieve economic prosperity without a sound, inclusive and functional basic education system.
He said that the security and stability of the country to a large extent, was depended on its ability to provide functional education to its citizens.
He said: “At the return of democracy in 1999, the three tiers of government publicly declared support for educational development in the country by providing lasting solution to the challenge of illiteracy in Nigeria.
“In the UBE Act of 2004, the government provided for a compulsory free education to Nigerian children for nine years covering primary and junior secondary education.
“Rising to the challenge of inflation, population pressure and explosion in the number of out-of-school, the senate in July 2017 amended the act from nine to 12 years.
“However, and regrettably, the House of Representatives till now has not amended the Act despite the urgent need to scale up free and compulsory education in the country.”
Lawal, therefore, called on the leadership of the House of Representatives and the entire structure of the National Assembly to rise to the occasion of amending the act without further delay.
He said that amending the act would help address the degenerating security situations and avert consequent national disasters.
Farida Yahya, Founder, Ja Muje Nigeria, called for the review of the federal budget on education from two per cent to four per cent.
Yahya said this would help assist state governments in implementing the UBE programme in their different states.
She said that it was important to give priority to education because lack of education and illiteracy could actually destroy the nation.
She said that given the children the right formal education would give birth to economic empowerment which would in turn translate to economic development of the country.
Femi Aderibigbe, Education Finance Campaign Consultant, Malala Fund, called for appropriate funding and right policy to drive quality education in the country.
Aderibigbe said it was worrisome that Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children, which had resulted to insecurity problems encountered in the country.
He said: “Nigeria’s federal education spending was cut dramatically in 2016 from 11.29 per cent to 7.98 per cent of the total federal budget.
“6.1 per cent of the federal budget is allocated to education in 2017, the lowest percentage in five years and less than a third of the UN target of 20 per cent for education spending.”
He, however, called on all stakeholders to address the problems in the educational sector so as to provide sustainable solutions to the country.
Also, Titilayo Mesaiyete, a 13-year-old student of Apo School Resettlement, Abuja, said she had a prospect of becoming a lawyer which could only be achieved if the Act was amended and implemented.
She also called for an improved educational facilities in schools to aid their learning.
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