The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Education

  • ‘We’re focused on education’

    The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) Chairman, Abdulahi Adamu Candido has dedicated 70 per cent resources of the remaining part of his government to the development of education across the council area.

    Candido disclosed this while speaking at LEA Primary School, Kunyami where he had visited to present over 200 samples of school uniforms to about 300 happy pupils of the three-month old school.

    He said, “We dedicate 70 percent of our remaining tenure to education, which means little assistance like these will preoccupy my tenure because we want to live a legacy of giving good education to our children who could compete with children of others coming to the FCT”.

    Disclosing that the Council did not have enough resources, but was working hard towards ensuring betterment of the people, Candido promised that his administration would commence construction of three blocks of class rooms and a headmaster’s place in that school. He therefore urged members of the community to enroll their children there and continue to support the school and the government.

    Candido commended the community for not waiting for government to give them everything and urged other communities to emulate Kunyami community.

    Responding to Kunyami community leader, Chief Silas Agoyi’s statement that the community would provide land for establishment of greater developments in the area, Candido informed that all land belonged to government, only crops on the land belonged to the people who farm on them.

    The traditional leader also requested for the establishment of a secondary school in the community and other facilities that would improve the lives of the people.

    The school Headmaster, Elesami Adekunle while expressing joy at Candido’s visit, also thanked the churches, mosques and others who support them, saying “I can now smile because the school has come and it is not just for us, but also for generations to come. We had to sit on mats in classes without roofs, but today, we have roofs and desks, with seven teachers…we can only ask for more.”

    Dinatu Joshua, Councilor representing Gboye ward where the community is located also made a donation of about 200 exercise books for the pupils. Hon. Dinatu prayed God to grant the Chairman the strong mind, more wisdom and open doors in all he does, pledging his people’s support.

     

  • Population, education and Nigeria’s cycle of poverty

    Nigeria’s population today is ranked seventh in the world at over 192 million and is projected to grow exponentially to over 233 million by 2025. This should be of grave concern to everyone, especially in view of absence of national economic plans that could provide jobs for the new addition especially when we are already confronted with a large numbers of idle hands.

     Basic knowledge of population growth teaches that population increase is only desirable when accompanied with increase in human capital development, economic activity and good governance. Frankly speaking, Nigeria’s population is already creating a myriad of social issues. Taking development indicators such as literacy rates, poverty rates, quality environment, social justice, gender equality etc into account, one cannot but conclude that our population growth is presently more of a liability rather than asset.

     Contrary to China’s population which manufactures and sells its products to every other part of the world, ours is a consuming population that lacks the will to adjust structurally for the better. Thus, our increasing population is a liability if we look at it from the mirror of pervasive poverty, illiteracy rate, unemployment and insecurity in the country.

     Except sincere national planning that adequately addresses the country’s population explosion and education sector that can groom entrepreneurs and inventors is urgently activated and implemented, poverty and various crimes currently plaguing the country will continue to be a major impediment to soci0-economic growth.

     Among the many assumptions as to why people commit crimes, the one that really stands out is the connection that crime shares with uncontrolled population growth, education and poverty. With our huge population, a lack of education is driving poverty rates; thus, causing those same impoverished and uneducated people to commit crimes. Unfortunately, what various tiers of governments are doing in education sector is not dominating our headlines as much as corruption does.

     Now in the light of recently released statistics of numbers of out-of-school children in the country, there is no convincing indication that changes would come as regard issue of poverty-induced-crimes. In addition to 54 million illiterates which put Nigeria at the bottom in the global literacy index ranking, Children-out-of-school is today a ticking time bomb that must not be allowed to explode.

     In what is clearly a national scandal for a country that is the world’s eighth largest oil producer, the UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report (EAGMR) says Nigeria holds the world record of having the highest number of its young people out of school. According to the shocking report, approximately 10.5 million kids which translate to one out of every five Nigerian children are out of school. Though this issue has been a prominent one for a long while, it is now about time adverse cultural practices including forced/misguided early marriages, Almajiris phenomenon, poverty and child labour are accorded urgent national attention.

     UNESCO says Nigeria is among the four nations that have experienced the highest increase of out-of-school children since 1999. The situation is, therefore, deeply worrying taking into cognizance that the country returned to democratic governance in 1999. The situation equally provides an answer to why people are easily manipulated by ethnic and religious bigots for selfish agenda. It explains why people sheepishly get into the recruitment net of Book Haram.

     With the current economic challenges in the country, children that lack basic education will struggle to live a decent life as most will still not have informal education and subsequently enter the cycle of poverty. When people descend into poverty in that way, they naturally turn to criminal activities in an attempt to make ends meet.  Such criminal tendencies can take many forms. It can be something as simple as petty theft or it can escalate into money rituals and other severe crimes such as armed robbery and kidnapping etc. sadly, when people find themselves in such situations, they are rarely able to get out of it which is why it becomes a menacing cycle.

     The difficulty or inability of the average Nigerian parent to cope with the  requirements of basic education of the child is at  variance with Article 2 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child which stipulates that no child, irrespective of the parentage, circumstance or status should be discriminated against with respect to access to education. In addition, Article 4 of the Convention states that governments should make every effort to ensure that all children have access to education.

     Having raised the problems, the next is to address the way forward. To break the cycle of poverty and crimes in the country, the large number of illiterates, out-of-school children and joblessness should be viewed by all Nigerians as an indictment of our collective humanism more than the failure of government alone. We must accept that all of us are duty bearers (as individuals, religious bodies, media, NGOs) who must accept to play role to ensure that future of many more children are not put at the risk of illiteracy and social esteem.

     Having assented to and ratified the recommendations of the Convention in addition to affirming such right in Chapter 2; Section 18 of Nigeria’s Constitution, the onus therefore is on the government at all levels to review existing policies and funding towards reversing the ugly trend of growing population of out-of-school-children and illiterate adults.

     As this is national imperative, a series of Federal initiatives must emerge as the country might not be able to actualize its change agenda without making literacy a fundamental right of its citizens. This becomes imperative as research has clearly shown that the higher the rate of literacy, the better the potential to succeed and the easier for government to fight poverty, crime as well as reducing social injustice.

     Indeed, poverty not only lies at the heart of the factors that hinder access to education but continues to be the main obstacle to achieving the goal of universal education in the country. For government to successfully enforce compulsory elementary education, there must be assurances that access to educational facilities as well as provisions of the basic needs, most especially feeding, clothing and educational materials of the children at that level are guaranteed.

     It is, thus, important that State Governments where there is large number of out of school children brace up to the challenges by committing substantial part of their respective annual budgets into improving education. The time for warm words is over; the time for action is now!

    • Musbau is of Features Unit, Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.
  • Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan may not meet 2020 education target, says UNICEF

    Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan may not meet 2020 education target, says UNICEF

    Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan may not meet the 2020 target  of  education for children of school age unless a collective involvement of stakeholders with political will is encouraged, the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has said.

    The UN agency said: “The number of Out of School Children (OOSC) in Nigeria constitutes 20 per cent of the global total and therefore, we have strata of the Almajiris, girls of school age not enrolled, nomadic herdsmen and fishermen children. And those displaced by the insurgency in the Northeast.

    “If Nigeria gets it right, Africa gets it.”

    A UNICEF official, Mrs. Azuka Menkiti, spoke at the weekend in Kaduna at a one-day planning meeting with journalists as a prelude to the flag off of 2017 National Enrolment and Birth Registration Campaign slated for October.

    The meeting was themed: “For a better tomorrow, enrol your child in school today and get free birth registration certificate from the National Population Commission (NPC)”.

    It was organised by the Federal Ministry of Education and Universal Basic Education Commission in collaboration with UNICEF, Nigeria.

    Mrs. Menkiti, in her presentation, titled: “Objectives, expected results and rationale for expanded partnerships, NPopC”, said statistical records showed that over nine million were in Qur’anic system of education, who she noted were also considered OOSC.

    She said the three countries facing the challenge topped the global ranking with alarming proportion of OOSC.

    The UNICEF official added that girls and boys of school age in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan are expected by 2030 to access free education.

    According to Mrs. Menkiti, research identified more girls as being out of school than boys in the North.

    “What we are concerned about is equity, fairness and justice for every child of school age. Every child has a right to be educated without gender disparity.

    “UNICEF is passionate about children in the Northeast, whose education foundation has been threatened,” she said.

    The UNICEF official, however, identified socio-cultural norms and practice, religious beliefs, lack of qualified teachers, inadequate infrastructure and poor governance as responsible for denying the child the right to education among other factors.

    Mrs. Menkiti attributed the poor level of enrolment to poverty, distance and parental ignorance on the benefits of educating their wards.

    Representative of the Federal Ministry of Education Mr. Elisha Francis, who spoke on the Federal Government’s  framework on enrolment, said the first tier of government had designed a responsive drive to reaching out to OOSC for integration into the formal school system through effective campaign implementation drive at all levels.

    Francis said: “The drive would consider parental demand for education, influence of change of attitude, inherent benefits, promote equity in basic education delivery, stakeholders participation as well facilitate Nigeria’s attainment of education related SDGs”.

  • JAMB to determine admission cut-off mark next week

    JAMB to determine admission cut-off mark next week

    The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), on Sunday announced that it would hold its Policy Committee meeting next week Monday and Tuesday to determine the cut-off point for the 2017 admission.
    The agency made the announcement in a statement on Sunday issued by its Head of Information, Dr. Fabian Benjamin, in Abuja.
    ‎Dr. Benjamin said the meeting approved by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu  would kick start the 2017 admission exercise.
    According to him, the policy committee would announced the cut off point for  the 2017 admission exercise.
    “‎The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), has obtained the approval of the Hon Minister of Education to hold the Policy Committee meeting on 2017 admission.
    “The meeting is scheduled to hold on Monday 21st to Tuesday 22nd August, 2017. This meeting will kick start the 2017 admission exercise. The policy committee would announced the cut off point for  the 2017 admission exercise.
    “All stakeholders including  Vice Chancellors of Universities, Rectors of Polytechnics and  Monotechnics  and  Provosts of Colleges of Education would be in attendance.”
    Benjami said the board has sent a soft copy of  printout of candidates to all institutions chosen by candidates.
    “This year the Board has sent candidates who scored 100 and above in their JAMB to the institutions in its flexible admission policy for institutions to determine the suitability of the candidates in compliance with all laid down rules and regulations as determined by the propriators of the institutions and approved by Senate of the various schools.
    “The Board will ensure that criterion set by Senate  are strictly adhere to by the institutions admission officers and no shifting of goal post in the middle of the admission exercise. This is to guarantee fairness and equity to all candidates,” the statement added.
    He also said the Registrar of JAMB, Prof. Is-haq Oloyede, at the foundation laying ceremony for a 500 capacity twin CBT centre in Osogbo, Osun State advised all computer based test (CBT) centre owners to ensure that their centres are up to date as the board would not compromise on the 2018 accreditation exercise.
    He said having suitable centres was the bedrock of conducting a smooth examination.
    “The 500 capacity twin CBTcentre built by NCC in compliance with presidential directive for NCC to build such centre in each senatorial district is to bring the centres closer to the candidates and also ensure standard.
    “The Registrar urge the consultant to ensure that the centre is built according to specification,” the statement added.

  • Poor education and intolerance

    SIR: Where education is not a major provision in a community’s infrastructure, confusion can govern attitudes. It is easy to denigrate and demonize an ethnic or religious category of people when it appears under the spotlight for the first time. Where nothing is known about a particular religion, misinformation and profiling can be refined by propaganda and spread throughout communities, cities and countries.

    Discrimination against people in any setting is generally accepted and spread through ignorance. Where facts and information can be withheld or censored, the way is open for a biased curriculum to be circulated.

    These continuing practices of invaders segregate citizens with divide-and-rule strategies. No different in colonial era where one part of the population was offered education and industry while the other was left untutored and unemployed. Those educated soon started to feel socially, morally and spiritually superior to their poorer counterparts. The disenfranchised were opened to exploitation of resentment, envy and rebellion.

    Those with poor education are not always able to access information that can be compared to propaganda fuelled by special-interest groups.  Even though many human-rights laws have components of spiritual ideals, suppression of information about different people and religions can assign these rights exclusively to majority communities. With ethical guidelines intimating an embrace of universal rights, events can nevertheless be orchestrated to limit those rights selectively.

    Religious intolerance can be introduced to a population’s psyche where it never existed before. Where education is not available, it is possible to build on people’s fears and contrived prejudices that their rights are being threatened by followers of a different faith.

    In the words of one late Pa. Ladipo Johnson, “Nigeria is moving fast in the wrong direction.” Further problems arise when fanatics base their beliefs and proclamations and actions on a few select principles ?of their faith. Either ones that suit their own agenda or, principles around which their agendas are created. And here lay the compounded difficulties of translation and interpretations.?

    Sometimes it seems that Nigerians can be tolerant of different customs and cultures, but when it comes to a matter of religious differences, even those which occur among different sects of the same religion, divisions remain.

    It was Pearl S. Buck who said and I believe it to be true that, “it’s natural anywhere that people like their own kind but it is not necessarily natural that their fondness for their own kind should lead them to the subjugation of whole groups of other people not like them.”

    One wishes that we can pursue the Nigerian dream and mission through partnerships and create networks of cooperation that are focused on growth to improve the lives of millions of people.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

     

  • Don to parents: prioritise education

    A professor of Adult Education at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Cecillia Oladapo, has counseled parents to make their wards’ education a priority.

    The Head of Department of Adult Education said that parents who invest their resources in the education of their children would yield immeasurable rewards in the future.

    The don spoke at the graduation of Matmonique Nursery and Primary School in Egbe-Idimu, Lagos.

    She said some parents would not pay the school fees of their children, but would readily spend huge resources on needless material properties.

    Prof Oladapo said education should be a priority of any family, but noted that parents should not expect immediate benefit from such investment.

    She said: “There is no amount too much to spend on children education. Parents must know that there is no guarantee for immediate profit from this investment. The benefits are for the future. Some parents prefer to spend money on Aso Ebi (clothes) and big cars, rather than paying the fees to keep their children in school. A huge loss awaits any parent who prioritises material wellbeing over children education.”

    She urged parents not to waiver in inculcating good values in their children, saying the efforts would help their wards achieve their future goals.

    The academic also admonished parents to reward their children when they excel in their academics.

    “When children put up good performance in school, parents have duty to reward them. Doing this would prepare the minds of children psychologically to do better in their studies. Parents must create time to listen to their children and attend to their needs. Whatever they become in future would show the foundation they had as children,” she said.

    Advising parents not to force careers on their children, The Nation’s CAMPUSLIFE coordinator, Wale Ajetunmobi, said children should have free will to choose any discipline and vocation they desire.

    The school proprietress, Mrs Monisola Ilori, said the school was established to raise the bar of quality in basic school. Being a certified Early Childhood Education expert, Mrs Ilori said she was disturbed by decline in standards of basic education, adding that the foundation was key in raising brilliant children.

    She said: “In education, we say a child is the father of the man. Whatever values you want to inculcate in children would be perfectly done between the age of zero and six. After this period, it is difficult to change that attitude. When children have good foundation in education, they grow to cherish the value of knowledge and dream of good future.”

    The highpoint was an interactive session, during which some parents gave testimonies of how the school turned their children around. Pupils who showed brilliant performance in academic and extramural activities were rewarded with prizes to encourage them in doing better.

  • Ex-minister seeks greater access to education for the poor

    Former Health Minister Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi has called on academics to find solution to the problem of unequal access to education.

    He warned that lack of access for the poor could be have disastrous consequences.

    Adelusi-Adeluyi, who is the founder of Juli Pharmacy, spoke while delivering the First Ladipo Mobolaji Abisogun-Afodu Annual Lecture in Pharmacy yesterday at the Main Auditorium of the University of Lagos.

    The lecture was held in honour of Mrs Abimbola Aina Omololu-Mulele, who endowed two professorial chairs in Pharmacy and Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2005.  The chairs were, however, converted to annual lectures because the funds available were insufficient to sustain the endowments.

    The respected pharmacist and lawyer said the lack of access should be a concern for the rich because it would affect their own children, who would have to live in the same society as the poor.

    He worried that the commercialisation of education resulted in blocking access for the less-privileged.

    In his lecture titled: “Private Public Partnership as a vehicle for sustainable pharmaceutical education”, Adeluyi-Adelusi asked: “Has the deregulation of education achieved its purpose of access or have we simply commercialised education in Nigeria? Has anyone thought of the implication of the educational segregation between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’ on the next generation?”

    He said at the end of the day, the society is governed by those who are streetwise, who usually are not numbered among the children of the rich or those that are brilliant.

    He said: “The First Class and those that make 2.1 will get jobs. Those that make third class and pass will have to find their way. They are usually streetwise; and it is the streetwise people that get into power; then they make laws for the brilliant people to obey and you cannot say anything.

    “We have to democratise education. This haves and haves not situation is not good.  Professors must look at the looming danger and do something about it.  Your children will eventually live in the same society as the children of the poor who do not have access to education and they will know your addresses.

    Adeluyi-Adelusi called on universities to creatively pursue industry collaborations through research and growth.

    To attract private partnership, he counselled faculties of pharmacies to ensure their projects are sustainable.

    He called on the Federal Government to craft a Public Private Partnership (PPP) strategy to finance tertiary education backed by the political will to implement it.

  • FCT guarantees more education for IDPs

    The FCT administration has said it will continue to provide access to basic education to the children and other vulnerable persons at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the FCT, pending when their return to their original communities.

    The FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Musa Bello disclosed this in Abuja while receiving a delegation from the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI).

    Bello disclosed that the FCT Administration has made available its vocation and rehabilitation centres for use by NGOs and other relevant government agencies in the FCT for the training of internally displaced persons to at least equip them with the basic economic skills while they are still housed at the IDP camps.

    According to the minister, “We have tried using our relationship with a number of NGOs to make sure that we concentrate on giving the young boys and girls basic education that they require so that by the time they move back to their communities, at least they would not have missed out too much.”

    “Within the FCT, we have a number of vocational institutions that we usually make the facilities available to the agencies of government that may want to use them to provide some form of intervention or some kind of skill acquisition training. So, in order for every agency not to duplicate by establishing its own vocational centre, I will advise that your organisation leverage on what is already on ground because you are going to cater for people who are really not going to be permanent. All you need to do is to give them some semblance of stability before they move on,” he said.

    The minister in a statement issues by his  Special Assistant (Media) to FCT Minister, Abubakar Sani charged the NCRMI and similar agencies, including those in the FCT to really assist these people, especially the young ones, noting that most of them have missed out of school for four to five sessions.

    “That impact will not be seen in our communities and their communities until many years down the road. Then you will realise that a certain age group missed out, either in terms of employment or in terms of getting into tertiary institutions.

    “With respect to your request for a transit camp for deportees, we would look into the master plan, and we believe there should be something that could accommodate this so that if for any reason deportees are brought to Abuja for instance, you can have a place where you can keep them, do some medical checks on them and then try to work out how to link them up with their final places of abode. That is something we can work on and we should be able to make land available to sort this out”.

    Earlier in her remarks, the Federal Commissioner for the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI), Hajiya Sadiya Umar Faruk said the Commission has been receiving Nigerian nationals who have been returned from various parts of the world, stressing that their intervention for this group has been focused on return, readmission as well as integration to at least to ensure that the returnees are brought back in dignity and safety and are able to settle back into the society so as to contribute to the development of such communities.

    She said the Commission is currently engaged in providing economic and employment opportunities for the displaced persons living in camps “because we believe that poverty has contributed immensely to the internal displacements especially in the North East. We are committed to keying into the recovery plan envisioned by President Muhammadu Buhari to alleviate the sufferings of our persons of concern while protecting their dignity.

    “We realised that we cannot do it alone without reaching to those that are widely known for their empathy to the plight of the vulnerable persons, hence our coming to the FCT Administration to explore areas of collaboration in terms of providing skills for the IDPs and transit camps particularly for deportees.”

  • ‘Save polytechnic education from collapse’

    National President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Comrade Usman Dutse, has raised the alarm that polytechnic education may collapse, if nothing urgent is done to rescue it.

    Dutse, who sent a Save-Our-Soul (SOS) message to the Federal Government, also enjoined union members to support their leaders to confront the challenges.

    He spoke at the opening of the 88th National Executive Council, (NEC) meeting of the union at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti.

    He noted that the meeting was to review the challenges and chart the way forward for polytechnic education in Nigeria, urging stakeholders to continue to work together to ensure industrial peace in the sector.

    In his welcome address, the out-going chairman of ASUP, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Comrade Tunji Owoeye, urged the union to fight for the establishment of a polytechnic commission which, he said, would improve how polytechnics are run.

    He said the government must demonstrate the political will to establish the body, like the universities, nomadic and primary commissions.

    “The commission is a must and it is this generation of ASUP that should muster and exert all vehement solidarity towards any action declared by NEC at achieving it,” he said.

    Owoeye praised the Polytechnic Rector, Dr Theresa Akande, for her understanding, saying the institution led in the full implementation of CONTISS 15 as well as prompt promotion of workers.

    Akande called on the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the Needs Assessment carried out for the  polytechnics some time ago “to enable a turnaround for the better for our polytechnics in the country.

    “Our sector is facing unimaginable challenges which are threatening to drown our existence as polytechnics,” she lamented.

    Urging the government to  honour its agreements with the academic communities, Akande said proper funding and equipping of polytechnics would help reduce incessant unrest as well as improve the standard of education.

  • Kogi short of UNESCO’s education benchmark

    Despite the increase in the allocation to the education sector in the 2017 budget by the Kogi State government, from 7.7 percent in 2016 to 13.76 percent in 2017, stakeholders have flayed the government for the inability to move nearer the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s benchmark on education of 26 percent.

    Brainstorming at the “Citizens Dialogue on the 2017 Approved Kogi State Education, Agriculture and Health Sector Budgets”, yesterday in Lokoja, they bemoaned the inability of governments at both the state and federal levels to do the needful, because of the important role of education in the development of any nation.

    “The analysis of the approved budget has shown that there is an increase in the allocation to the education sector from 7.7 percent in 2016 to 13.76 percent in 2017. There was also an increase in allocation to agriculture from 2.7 percent in 2016 to 4.53 percent in 2017. Sadly, allocation to the health sector reduced from 7.65 percent in 2016 to 6.6 percent  in 2017.

    “Nigeria and Kogi State have also consistently failed to honour international commitments and benchmarks such as the Maputo Declaration on agriculture of a minimum of 10 percent,  Africa Union (AU) benchmark on health of 15 percent allocation and UNESCO bencmark on education of 26 percent allocation”, said Gift Owonipa, the Executive Director, Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID).

    “As citizens of Kogi State, we have also realized that we have a huge role to play in the implementation of the approved budget, especially now that Nigeria is witnessing dwindling oil prices and there is the urgent need to diversify our revenue source in the state.

    “Education is the bedrock of achievements of the developed societies. Improvement in education is necessary for the transformation of the Nigerian society. These improvements are needed in increased enrolment in the primary, secondary and tertiary level; improvements in learning outcomes and acquisition of skills and the conversion of the knowledge of science and technology that powers societal development.

    “There is therefore the need for continous improvements in the quantity and quality of resources available to the education sector if Nigeria is to meet its development vision and the 2030 agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, she added.

    The cross-section of participants called on government to take heed of the 26 percent UNESCO allocation benchmark for the education sector in the search for robust and sustainable development in Kogi State and Nigeria as a whole.

    A look at the Kogi State fiscal plan for the year shows that while the total budget stands at N174,851,544.523, with a recurrent expenditure proposal of N58,714,125.607 and capital expenditure of N166,137,418.916, total allocation to the ministry of education, science and technology is N5,632,773,767.

    A further analysis of allocation to the education sector in 2017 approved Kogi State budget showed a 68 percent increase in the allocation to the sector from N7,697,444, 205 in 2016 to N24,058,149,936 in 2017.