Funding, Infrastructure Challenges Fuelling Out-of-school Children – UBEC

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has expressed concern over the proliferation of out-of-school children in Nigeria’s basic schools, pointing out that the problem was compounded by states‘ inability to access funds from the national education purse for teaching and education infrastructural development.

The executive secretary of UBEC, Aisha Garba, disclosed this on Thursday at the opening of a two-day Management Retreat on the theme “Repositioning UBEC For Sustainable Basic Education Delivery In Nigeria”  held at Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resorts, Uyo, Akwa Ibom state.

She noted that “over the years, states have experienced delays in accessing the matching grant funds disbursed from the national level,”  explaining that the forum became necessary to address such discrepancies and other challenges confronting basic education in Nigeria.

„The event is strictly for the management staff to come together see how we can efficiently plan to effectively deliver on the key priority of this President Bola Tinubu administration  Renewed Hope Agenda, and the Minister of Education in ensuring UBEC is repositioned to make significant contribution in the area of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) for our children regardless of their background or geographical location,“ she explained.

She noted that UBEC had been making strides in promoting and developing the basic education system. However, she regretted that much still needed to be done to improve the quality and standard of teaching and learning by updating the infrastructure in public basic schools.

„Over the years, Nigeria has experienced mixed trends in key education indicators, reflecting both progress and persistent challenges,“ Garba stated, pointing out that though significant gains have been recorded in enrollment, access challenge remains a core area begging for attention.

„The enrollment rate for children between three and five years saw minimal growth between 2018 and 2022. The decline in the teacher-student ratio indicates a strain on teaching capacity, potentially compromising education quality,“ she noted

According to her, UBEC, in conjunction with SUBEB, has made many interventions to improve the basic education system, including building thousands of schools and renovating hundreds of classrooms.

„UBEC has sustained improved investment to improve the student-classroom ratio infrastructure,“ adding that significant gaps remain for more Interventions.

The UBEC chief also pointed out that most of the out-of-school children are prevalent in the rural areas, and mainly drawn from poor homes due to economic inequalities fueling poverty in many vulnerable homes and stressed the need for more advocacy to address the challenges confronting basic school education in Nigeria.