EDUCATION FINANCING IN NIGERIA

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF PRE-SAP AND POST-SAP EPOCHS

Abstract

Before 1986, African governments invested heavily in education and studies show that in Nigeria and other countries in Africa, this was the period of the most rapid expansion of education. The economic crisis of the 1980s led to the introduction of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) with prescription from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for reduction in public investment in education. In reality these policy led to decrease in public expenditure on education, increased participation of the private sector, commercialization of education and stagnation of salary of teachers in the face of inflation leading to decline in the quality of education. One other way that has led to declining quality of education is the neglect of tertiary institutions in Nigeria especially as from the mid-1980s. This study assessed comparatively Nigeria’s budgetary allocations to the Education sector from year 1980 to 2016. Simple percentage method was adopted in the empirical investigation. This has led to decay in the educational sector of the country. Data used are Federal Government Recurrent Expenditure from 1980 to 2016 sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria CBN Statistical Bulletin (2000 - 2011), Budget allocations from the Budget office (1980-2016). The study showed that Nigeria’s budgetary allocation was less than the 26 percent recommended by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in the years under review. The study also discovered that the allocated funds were not fully implemented by the relevant agencies. For this to be corrected, the study recommended among others that, the country should implement at least the 26 percent target in its yearly budgets, more funds should be allocated for capital projects and there is the need for recommitment and fiscal discipline in the formulation and implementation of budgets.