The House of Representatives has recommended a minimum of 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the education sector.
Chairman of the House Committee on Federal Polytechnics and Higher Technical Education, Adebgboyega Isiaka, disclosed this during the committee’s inaugural meeting.
The chairman added that sub-allocation to technical education should be upgraded to not less than 30 per cent of education allocation.
This is as the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) pledged its commitment to stamp out illegal institutions from the educational system.
Isiaka stressed that this, alongside other necessary systemic and attitudinal changes, would put the country on the path of national growth and global competitiveness in the 21st-century skills market.
He noted that the low pace of technological and industrial growth in Nigeria could be attributed partly to the inability of technical educators to utilise scientific ideas to promote technology.
The lawmaker stressed that about 24 per cent of students receive technical and vocational education, which is very low compared to many developed and developing nations.
He noted that the unemployment figure within the youth demographic (18-45 years) was put at a staggering 36.5 per cent, adding that a distressing 13 million Nigerians are out of job.
Isiaka added that expatriates from Europe and China, receiving huge sums of dollars for various projects in Nigeria, comprise many well-resourced technical and vocational college graduates from their home nations.
“We need to put our money where our mouth is because average federal allocation to the education sector over the last five years is set at seven per cent, and according to data obtained from NBTE, total sub-allocation to technical education is just 12 per cent out of the total appropriation to education.
“This is considered too low and probably reflects why the World Education Forum global education system assessments report on 140 countries (34 African nations inclusive) ranked Nigeria 124th in the world and 12th in Africa, with a literacy rate of 62.2 per cent.”
