Sen. Oluremi Tinubu, the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, on Tuesday urged government at all levels to give priority to the funding of the education sector.
Tinubu stated this at the University of Ibadan while delivering a lecture entitled: “ Education and National Development in Nigeria: Imperative for Proper Funding.’’
She also called on education administrators to outline priorities and put an end to the culture of waste in the country.
’’I was saddened to witness during oversight function the fact that tertiary institutions do not commit much of their budget to research.
“The culture of waste in our academic budget should become a thing of the past.
''As individuals, corporate bodies or organisations, we can donate a book, provide scholarship, stimulate interest in research and reach out in kind or cash,” she said.
She said Nigeria must strive to meet the minimum standard of 26 per cent of the national budget advocated by UNESCO toward achieving quality education.
Earlier, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof. Olusegun Kolawole, said the lecture was organised to mark the 50th anniversary of the faculty.
He said the faculty, which was established in 1962, was saddled with the objective of producing highly qualified personnel for all levels of education in the country.
Kolawole lamented the decay in infrastructure, inadequate funds, overcrowded lecture rooms as well as inadequate office space for lecturers.
He said that the faculty could not possibly perform better than the level of funding available to the larger university.
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