Nigeria still running 1-6-3-3-4 system of education ― Ex-UBEC boss

A former Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission, Professor Gidado Tahir has said that the 1-6-3-3-4 system of education is what is currently in practice in Nigeria.

He made the clarification on Monday in Abuja amid confusion by some stakeholders on the current system of education that is operational in Nigeria.

Tahir spoke at a two-day meeting of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) management with Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) to strategise on measures for improving basic education in the country.

It would be recalled that the National Council on Education (NCE), which is the highest policy-making body in education had approved the incorporation of the one-year pre-primary education into the existing 6-3-3-4 to become 1-6-3-3-4 in June 2013.

The decision was reached at the 59th Annual Meeting of the council, which was presided over by the then Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i. Since then, the policy has not been changed.

Tahir, who was the pioneer Executive Secretary of UBEC, said it was important that the chairmen of the SUBEBs who are implementers of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme, acquaint themselves with the policy, so as to know the limit of their intervention at the basic level of education.

He said by law, the matching grant provided by the Federal Government to support the implementation of UBE by the state governments through their SUBEBs, covers from pre-primary school to Junior Secondary School (JSS) level.

He further explained that the Senior Secondary School level of education was not covered by UBEC intervention.

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This is one of the reasons why many stakeholders including the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) have been clamouring for the creation of National Secondary Education Commission to cater for the Senior Secondary School level of education.

The former UBEC boss said the successful implementation of the UBE Program is hinged on sound policy, good governance, transparency, good plans with clear implementation strategies.

He also spoke on the need to deploy the right calibre of personnel to manage the programme at all levels and continuous monitoring and evaluation of the programme for its improvement and effectiveness.

“We have a problem with a lack of commitment. When you have people who are supposed to team up and work for a common good but the other does not seem to be doing his own part there ought to be some challenges.

“So I think if commitments are the same all along, all through, all departments are committed to this particular objectives, we will go a long to achieving basic education.”

Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi in his welcome address said the meeting was to bring in the wealth of experience of Executive Chairmen across states to bear to the collective effort of the Commission in moving basic education forward.

He noted that the commission has not been able to meet with the SUBEBs chairman for quite some time because of political activities in 2019 and that with so many new chairmen coming on board in the states, there was the need to see that they operate on the same page with UBEC.

He said: “A lot of development has taken at the basic level of education. Therefore, there is need to bring all of them together to discuss the current challenges of basic education, acquaint the new SUBEBs chairmen with UBEC laws, how it operates and the various guidelines required for them to follow,” he said.

Bobboyi said the challenges have always been there both structurally and functional in terms of structures that are on the ground, stressing that all hands must be on deck to tackle the challenges confronting the sub-sector.