Abstract:

This study marks a first attempt to conduct a comprehensive assessment of public and private financing for education of Almajiri children in two states of Northern Nigeria. Estimated at approximately 1.5 million pupils in Kano and Zamfara, these Almajiri students are mostly male, mostly young, and mostly indigent. There is currently no data available on the costs associated with educating these children. Using the structure of National Education Accounts (NEAs) framework, the study, a sub-account, answers four key questions: Who is financing education? How much do they spend? How are funds distributed across different education providers, levels and activities? Who benefits from or receives the services? NEAs, a new tool for measuring education expenditures in a systematic policy-friendly manner, gather information on all spending from public, private and donor sources, and provides a snap-shot of all expenditures on education in the state or country. While not an auditing tool, it provides real time information on the flow of funds that can be used for evidence based decision making. It provides information to policy-makers that enables them to discern system-wide inequities and identify areas that require changes in policy. In addition, the use of a standard classification of expenditures allows for data from NEAs to be comparable between and within countries. Education Sub-accounts use the NEA framework, while being focused on one specific area of education.

Results of the study show that private out-of-pocket spending contributes a bulk of the spending for the education of the Almajiri students. A comparison with data from Education Accounts conducted for formal education in the two states reveals that the level of private spending on the education of Almajiri students is about the same as that for children attending formal schools raising important questions about the willingness to pay for education. This paper analyzes public and private expenditures on formal and non-formal education for the two states in the context of state government priorities for education, and highlights the use of National Education Accounts and their Sub-accounts as a novel way of tracking trends in education spending as a means for policy makers to organize a strategic vision supported by data and to evaluate the outcome of policies.

Keywords:

national education accounts, nea, state education accounts, sea, education financing.