N130b education fund unaccessed

States government have failed to access N130 billion with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), due to their inability to provide their 50 per cent counterpart funds.
The Minister of State for Education, Chuwkuemeka Nwajiuba made this known in Jalingo at the ongoing National Council on Education.
The Minister described this as regrettable, decrying the inability of some states of the Federation to access counterpart funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC, for developing primary education in the States.
The Minister who spoke on behalf of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, also stated that the affected states need to reprioritize basic education as it is the bedrock for further and continuing education.
He said the funds are too strategic to be ignored.
Emphasising the need for co-operation from the states, Nwajiuba said the tasks of developing education at all levels, securing the children and ensuring basic sanitation in Nigerian schools requires that all hands must be on deck to achieve the desired results.
Also speaking at the occasion in a goodwill message, former deputy governor of plateau state and current Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen called for greater stakeholder cooperation in the efforts to eradicate the out of school children phenomenon, adding that no child should be left behind.
President of the Association of Proprietors of private schools, Mr Ajibade Augustine stated that members of the Association are more than ever before, determined to take more children off the streets in their efforts at eradicating the out of school children phenomenon. (VON)