Lack of credible data bane of development of basic education — UBEC boss

THE Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi has lamented that lack of accurate and reliable data has remained the bane basic education in Nigeria.

Bobboyi decried decrying a situation where education planners and decision-makers have had to make do with data that are not up-to-date or are outrightly falsified.

“The absence of current and reliable data often leads to faulty plans whose objectives are difficult to achieve. It creates a situation where we either over-estimate needs, leading to waste of resources or under-estimation which leads to under-resourcing of programmes or activities,” he said.

He spoke in Abuja at the one-day consultative meeting of the national planning committee of the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) with religious leaders on the modalities for the conduct of NPA in all basic education institutions in Nigeria.

The first phase of the NPA exercise will commence on Monday, June 6 in the southern part of the country.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Jama’atu Nasir Islam (JNI), which were represented at the consultative meeting, pledged their support towards the success of the exercise.

Bobboyi who was represented by the deputy executive secretary (Services), Dr Isiaka Kolawole, in his address, acknowledged the key role being played by  religious leaders in the implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) in the country, urging them to continue to collaborate with the government in addressing the challenge of out-of-school children while ensuring quality basic education is delivered to the citizenry.

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He also appealed to the religious leaders, whom he noted have many schools across the country, to support the NPA exercise, saying that the dearth of data on basic education had remained a major challenge to its implementation in Nigeria.

He said it was against this backdrop that the commission, with the state’s and Federal Capital Territory (FCT)’s Universal Basic Education Boards, conducted national personal audits in 2006, 2010 and 2018, explaining that the 2018 exercise was more comprehensive as it covered all categories of public and private education institutions unlike the previous exercises that were limited only to public schools.

“We are in the process of conducting another personnel audit of all educational institutions in the country, offering full or elements of basic education. This is for the purpose of collecting school data on enrolment, personnel, and facilities, among others,” he said.

According to him, data collection enables the commission to plan effectively towards the systematic achievement of the educational objectives, track the progress made, identify the strengths and weaknesses of implementation strategies, and form the basis for making informed decisions.

“Basically, from the state to the federal level, we should always know the number and characteristics of learners, teachers and other personnel in the schools. We should know what facilities are available and what gaps exist. This a great concern to us at the commission.” he said.

Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical) UBEC, and chairman of 2022 NPA National Planning Committee, Professor Bala Zakari, solicited the cooperation of religious leaders, especially in the area of mass mobilisation and sensitisation of the heads of their various schools nationwide in readiness for the exercise.

Dr Khalil Aliyu, the General Secretary, JNI, in his goodwill message delivered at the event, said the headcount was crucial as it would help with comprehensive data for proper planning and budgeting for the education sector.

He assured that JNI would carry out the needed mobilisation and orientation at the local, state and federal levels.

“The result of the national audit will help improve budgeting for education as education is the bedrock for socio-political development of countries.

“We commend UBEC for the effort to improve education in Nigeria and we will be willing to support the commission to move basic education in Nigeria forward,” Aliyu said.

In his remarks, the secretary-general of CAN, Joseph Daramola, commended UBEC for embarking on the exercise, saying it was critical in view of the need to reposition the education sector in Nigeria.

He promised that CAN would sensitise the various religious groups under it at all levels to ensure the success of the exercise.

He thanked the Federal Government for considering faith-based schools as part of the headcount as against the 2018 edition which did not include faith-based institutions at the basic levels.

“We are ready to team up with UBEC to further develop education in Nigeria,” he said.

Daramola, however, decried the gradual erosion of the nation’s cherished values and morals in schools with examination malpractice becoming a malaise in many schools across the country.

He said that “It is unfortunate that it is not longer only students who are involved in examination malpractice, but also the parents and teachers,” urging the government and regulatory authorities to be firm on issues of discipline.

“We commend the states that have given back the mission schools to the original owners. We appeal to the government to return the mission schools, be it Christian and Muslims, to the original owners to bring back morals.

“If morals are being taught in schools, armed robbery, brigandage, terrorism, and banditry would be a thing of the past,” he added.

On the issue of strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the CAN scribe called on the Federal Government and ASUU to without further delay agree to end the strike.

He particularly urged the Federal Government to look into the plight of ASUU and accede to their demands while also urging ASUU to take it easy on the government in view of the current economic condition nation-wide.

He noted that it is the parents and students that bear the brunt of the prolonged strike, adding that many of the students who are idle have taken to crimes and criminality including banditry, saying “an idle hand is the devil’s workshop.”