Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. Nyesom Wike, has revealed that his administration has committed a total sum of $1,045,176,470 billion approximately N177B for the development of infrastructures in the education sector.
This he said was inclusive of the N3,500,000,000.00 billion counterpart funding from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), bringing the total commitment to infrastructural development to approximately N177, 000,000,000.00 billion.
The minister stated this at the sixth International Conference on Learning Cities held in Jubail Industrial City, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The minister, who was represented by the Minister of State FCT, Dr. Mariya Mahmoud, also noted that Abuja’s annual budget for the development of education has surpassed the UNESCO benchmark of 26 percent.
Highlighting further the total investment in different sectors of education, Wike said a total of 21 primary and junior secondary schools were renovated completely, while a total of 30 senior secondary schools were also established.
Other areas of infrastructural investment according to the Minister include the tertiary education sector, adding that the FCT Administration has committed the sum of N14,529,622,993 billion for the completion and launch of FCT University in Abaji.
According to him, “UNESCO generally recommends that member nations have a budgetary allocation benchmark of at least 26 percent to education.
“This benchmark is intended to ensure that countries can adequately address the needs of their education system such as teachers, training, infrastructure development, and educational technology.
“It might interest my audience to know that Abuja’s annual budget for education surpasses the UNESCO benchmark.”
Wike reiterated that the city under his watch has invested heavily in the training and retraining of teachers and educational infrastructure in the six area councils of the territory.
He affirmed that the administration has maintained a total commitment to the Abuja Learning City status as emphasized by UNESCO, adding that Abuja city has adopted a “whole school” approach system that promotes peace, security, and tolerance through knowledge, skills, and global awareness.
It could be recalled that the sixth International Conference on Learning Cities (ICLC 6) focused on strategies to promote climate action through lifelong learning.
The conference theme was “Learning Cities at the Forefront of Climate Action.”
The conference brought together representatives from UNESCO learning cities, policy-makers, educators, researchers, and other stakeholders.
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