BUDGET

A budget is generally a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods. In other terms, a budget is an organizational plan stated in monetary terms.

THE NEED FOR PUBLIC FINANCING OF EDUCATION

The educational system is necessary because of the numerous advantages derived from it. It is the industry that produces the manpower required for social, political and economic development of nations. The more educated the population of a country is, the higher the productive efforts (marginal productivity) of its citizens and hence higher national income or per capital income, cetaris paribus. Harbison (1973:3) posited that;
Human resources- not capital, nor income, nor material resources – constitute the ultimate bases of the wealth of nations. Capital and natural resources are passive factors of production, human beings are the active agents who accumulate capital, exploit natural resources, build social, economic and political organizations and carry forward national development.

The thesis of Harbison (1973) reinforced the earlier thesis by Johns an Morphet (1965) reported in Obasi (2000:67) to the effect that “modern civilization demands knowledge, understanding and technological skills. Development of these through education provides the opportunity for progress. Neglect invites misery exploitation and eventual disaster”.
Apparently, the cost of education is pretty too expensive for private individuals or households to pay its full cost. For example, Obadan (1978) observed that in Bendel State of Nigeria, per student unit cost of secondary education varied form one local government to another and ranged between N109 and N279 in 1977/78. For Nigeria as a whole Pandit (1979) has shown that average per student recurrent unit cost by levels of education, 1978/79 is approximately as follows: Primary education N53, Secondary Commercial N115, Secondary N425, Teacher training colleges N524. For higher education (University undergraduate and post graduate course) per student recurrent unit costs varies from N719 (arts courses) to N3,594 (medical courses). Whereas this was the case over two decades ago, the current per student or pupil unit cost of would be anybody’s guess. Besides, there are other problems inherent in providing education for which it becomes necessary for the public (government) to come to the rescue of individuals in the provision of education.