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states (5%), supply of instructional materials (15%), teacher professional development
(10%), monitoring of the UBE programme (2%) and UBE Implementation (2%) (Onocha,
2013; UBEC, 2013). Accessing the funds depends on states' commitment to meeting certain
conditions, which include the provision of their counterpart fund. Onocha (2013) explains
that between May 2011 and May 2013 many states could not receive the funds and up to 15%
of the funds within this period was not accessed by states because they could not contribute
their counter-part fund which is a major required that must be met before the Federal
Government could release the grant to them. Besides, information on educational financing
in Nigeria is patchy and unreliable. The Federal Ministry of Education (FME, 2011) concludes
that making a comprehensive estimate on education financing is challenging because of
budgeting and reporting inconsistency.
Following the funding inadequacy, misappropriation and low political will, provision of school
infrastructure have been low albeit increasing. Through the UBE funding, significant investment
has been made in education infrastructure in the past decade but serious gaps also remain. The
UBEC nationwide assessment shows that although there has been some increase in the number
of schools, the quality and quantity remain low and distribution of classroom blocks is both
uneven and inadequate (UBEC, 2012b). UBEC assessment reveals that over 50% of primary
school facilities, building roofs, and walls were in bad shape, requiring serious repair or
replacement and, 74.09%of JSS schools lacked science laboratory and up to 91.36%did not have
ICT facilities (UBEC, 2009, 2011). The report also shows that only 7.42% of primary schools had
toilets, 8.20%, and 52.1% did not have and no information was provided about toilets in the
21.2% of the schools (UBEC, 2009, 2013). A study of the quality of education in Osun state public
primary schools reveals inadequate facilities and furniture in schools and pupils tend to on the
bare floor while receiving lessons (Ajayi and Adeyemi, 2011). Severe classroom shortage results
in overcrowding classrooms and the poor quality of schools. The inadequate and poor
conditions of school infrastructure played roles in driving 16.8% of children out of school (NPC
and RTI International, 2011). While various reports suggest that private schools tend to have
better facilities and less overcrowding challenges (Härmä, 2011a,b, Humphreys and Crawfurd,
2014; Gershberg et al. 2016).
While the private schools tend to have better facilities, their costs are also higher. Household
expenses are higher in private schools. In 2015, households spent an average of 22.340 Naira in
private primary schools annually which was more than ten times what they spent in public
schools. In the urban areas the cost was also more than three times the households’ expenditure
in the rural areas. Households spent more on females (8793 Naira) than on males (8146 Naira).
Expenditures are is not uniform across geopolitical zones, most southern states spent higher on
their children’s education than northern zones. Poorer households tend to spend lesser on
children’s education, suggesting their possible inability to meet up with major school expenses;
private schools expenses are even higher (see NPC & RTI, 2016).
Class size and teacher pupil-ratio are also other inputs of significant concern. The approved
teacher-pupil ratio by the National Policy on Education at basic and post-basic educaiton levels
are 1:35 and 1:40 respectively (FME, 2013). Using data from the National Abstract statistics,
Ezegwu and Ewemooje (2011) highlighted that in many states class size and pupil-teacher ratio
were very high. Despite diverse interventions over the years, a recent report shows that these
challenges persist. Humphreys and Crawfud (2014) note that the figures of pupil–teacher ratio
(PTR) published by the government in the Annual School Census (ASC) do not often reflect the
classroom realities. Based on data from the Annual Schools Census, Humphreys and Crawfurd
observed that TPR for qualified teachers in Jigawa were between 48 and 214; in Kano, it stood