Stakeholders in the education sector have expressed concern over what they describe as the declining quality of education despite Nigeria’s pivotal role in national development.
The 2024 National Accountability Summit (NAS), organized by Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI) on the theme “Strengthening Accountability: Limiting Vulnerability,” highlighted several challenges that are undermining educational standards. Ta. These include the prevalence of poorly trained teachers, outdated curricula, and a lack of modern educational tools and resources.
The communiqué released at the end of the summit made it clear that access to education remains a major challenge, especially for girls and vulnerable groups in marginalized and rural areas. Stakeholders identified social norms, early marriage, cultural barriers and security challenges as significant obstacles to inclusive education.
Concerns were also raised about the government’s low budget allocation for education, far below the 15-20% of the national budget recommended by UNESCO. Stakeholders lamented that the sector is chronically underfunded, leading to aging infrastructure, lack of teaching materials, and insufficient investment in teacher training and recruitment.
The summit called for an increase in the education budget and the introduction of effective monitoring mechanisms to ensure that allocated funds are used wisely to improve educational outcomes.
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Key reforms recommended include improving teacher training, ensuring curricula are relevant to current realities, and providing high-quality infrastructure.
Additionally, participants emphasized the importance of strengthening community advocacy and public education to counter harmful social norms that prevent girls and vulnerable groups from accessing education. They called on governments to adopt policies that target socio-cultural barriers to promote inclusivity.
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In addition to education, the summit also discussed important issues related to availability, funding, accessibility, affordability, and retention in the healthcare sector. Participants emphasized the need for a comprehensive strategy to retain health workers that combines financial incentives with improved working conditions and infrastructure improvements.
The summit highlighted the need to create an environment in which health workers can thrive and remain motivated to serve locally in order to address the “Japa syndrome,” the trend of skilled professionals migrating overseas in search of better opportunities. He emphasized that there is.
