SCACEFA URGES ZAMFARA GOVERNMENT TO GIVE PRIORITY TO EDUCATION SECTOR
The Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) an NGO, has called on new administration in Zamfara to give priority to education in order to ensure future development of the state.
The State CSACEFA Coordinator, Murtala Iliyasu made the call in Gusau on Thursday at a one day advocacy meeting with education stakeholders in the state on enhancing education financing.
The meeting has a theme : “Investing In a Just World-Decolonizing Education Finance”
Iliyasu noted that the meeting was organized to celebrate Global Action Week on Education (GAWE) 2023.
According to him, there was need for new administration in the state to focus on addressing challenges facing the education sector .
He said the CSACEFA is a coalition of NGOs, Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) involved in education in Nigeria.
“The coalition engaged in consultation and advocacy process with a broad range of stakeholders including government and donors.
“In Zamfara, CSACEFA has been working with relevant education stakeholders in the state including Ministries, Department and Agencies.
“It has been contributing towards achieving inclusive quality education for all”, he added.
According to him, the recent report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), revealed that Zamfara is considered as one of the educationally disadvantage state in the country where literacy rates stood at a very low point” he said.
“The report also said that, Zamfara is among three states with highest number of out-of-school children with 61.4 percent and roughly about 80 percent of the citizens in the state have no secondary school education”, he explained.
Iliyasu attributed the challenges to poor funding and poor implementation of education budget.
In a remarks, the Director School Services, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Garba Abdullahi commended the NGO for organizing the meeting.
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“This meeting is timely considering serious challenges faced by education sector as regard to effective education financing and importance of budget release for effective implementation of education strategic plan”, Garba noted.
In a paper presentation, the Executive Director, Millennium Development Center Gusau, Dr Ahmad Hashim urged state government to implement UNESCO guidelines that education sector should be given 26 percent of the state annual budget.
“The paper titled, “Effective education budget process, a panacea to improve education financing in Zamfara”.
“We realized that allocating resources to education sector bacame problematic, because the required attention is not given to education as major social investment.” Hashim said.
The meeting was attended by representatives of government and private organisations and education stakeholders in the state, Media and other relevant stakeholders.
