By Felix Khanoba
The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says the Federal Government is expending about N100 billion yearly on the basic education sector through the agency.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made this known on Monday in Abuja, during a one-day meeting on promoting partnership with the Organised Private Sector (OPS) and other stakeholders in the implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme.
Bobboyi, who expressed the need for joint efforts involving OPS to tackle the massive challenges in the basic education sector, said the Federal Government would not be able to single-handedly address the problems.
“The Federal Government has been expending a lot of resources ; hundreds of billions every year, even in UBEC and others. The (UBEC) matching grant is 50 percent of what we are given from the 2 percent consolidated revenue fund. You talk of N50 billion, plus other transfers.
“Other transfers in the area of teachers development, in the area of instructional materials and so on and so forth. This is huge amount of up to N100 billion on a yearly basis. So the government is putting serious efforts.
” But nationally, we have different challenges in different parts. The infrastructure we have require much more than the resources we are providing,” the UBEC boss said.
Speaking further, Bobboyi lamented the drop in the number of teachers in Nigerian schools, which he largely blamed on COVID-19.
” The number of teachers we have, have been declining. COVID had almost decimated, particularly the public schools, where you have about 29 percent reduction in the number of teachers who are going to classroom in Nigeria…
” In the area of instructional materials, despite the efforts of the Federal Government to provide (them), our other partners are not providing these essential materials. You can teach somebody how to read and write but if he or she has nothing to read, that becomes a problem.
“So, we need to come together and strategise to see what we can do together in the lives of our children and in the future of our country,” he said.
The Executive Secretary, who said that UBEC was also focusing attention on establishing smart schools and educational investment in the area of Information Communication and Technology, urged more involvement of the private sector to ensure that the key resources that will enable children to function effectively in schools are provided.
On her part, the Director of Basic Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr Folake Olatunji-David, called for a robust collaboration between the Organised Private Sector and UBEC to ensure a better basic education delivery.
Represented by an official of the Ministry, Odegbue Stella, Olatunji-David challenged both UBEC and the OPS to leverage on the event to work out workable synergy that would enhance the education sector.
“Government acknowledges the need to look beyond her regular resource mobilisation and implementation efforts by refocusing attention on non-state actors to participate actively in the UBE implementation process,” she said.
The AUTHORITY reports that the event, which featured deliberations on ongoing and prospective corporate interventions in UBE delivery, also witnessed goodwill messages from Dangote Foundation, Oando Foundation, among others.
