UBEC Targets 10m Out-of-school Children Before 2028

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has revealed plans to reintegrate 10 million out-of-school children into school across Nigeria before 2028.

UBEC’s Executive Secretary, Hajiya Aisha Garba, disclosed this on Thursday in Kano during the first phase of a two-day retreat for the commission’s senior staff, with the theme ‘Repositioning UBEC for sustainable basic education delivery in Nigeria’.

According to her, the commission’s strategic blueprint envisioned reducing the number by 70 per cent between 2025 and 2028, hence the need to collaborate with both national and state government agencies to achieve that.

She said the retreat intends to mobilise stakeholders to align and work in close coordination on key priorities in delivering basic education for the betterment of children.

She further reiterated that her top agenda to reform the commission is in line with the renewed hope agenda of the presidency and the ministerial agenda of ensuring basic education and service delivery by reducing the number of out-of-school children and improving education quality across the country.

Corroborating her speech, the deputy executive secretary, technical, Razaq Akinyemi, said the retreat also provides a platform to collectively explore new ways to achieve greater impact.

He added that the commission has taken important steps to enhance the quality of teaching and learning through initiatives such as the Teacher Professional Development (TPD) programme, and expanded access to basic education by improving school infrastructure across the country.

He said the commission has worked closely with State Universal Education Boards(SUBEB) and constructed over 3,700 classrooms, established 34 Model and SMART Schools, provided over 142,000 units of furniture, and positively impacted over 181,000 learners.

In his remarks, the chairman of the Kano SUBEB noted that the state government under Governor Abba Yusuf has embarked on several initiatives to improve the quality of education in the state, including free distribution of school uniforms and learning materials and construction of new classrooms and renovations.

He also added that the state has released N39 million for the training of 400 quality assurance officers, N35 million for school-based training, and N5 million for the mobilisation and enrollment of nomadic communities to enrol their children in schools.