UBEC pushes for review of allocation from 2% to 4%

THE Universal Basic Education Commission has called for an upward review from two per cent to four per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Funds being allocated by the Federal Government to the Commission, in view of the emerging challenges being faced in basic education delivery in the country.

The executive secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made the declaration in Abuja during a one-day Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) legislative round table meeting, where some national and state houses of assembly members were present.

He lamented the enormity of the challenges in the basic education subsector despite intervention by the Federal Government over the years.

He disclosed that over 50 percent of schools in the country had no furniture with the pupils sitting on the floor to learn.

In August 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the constitution of an inter-ministerial committee with a mandate to harmonise and develop a framework for a sustainable funding of education in Nigeria.

The committee, which was chaired by the immediate past permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, who is now the Executive Secretary of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), was constituted on the strength of recommendations by a two-day stakeholders’ workshop organised by the Ministry of Education in partnership with its Finance counterpart tagged, ‘Sustainable Funding for Education in Nigeria.’

One of the key recommendations of the workshop was a call for the Federal Government to increase the two percent Consolidated Revenue Fund (FGN-CRF) allocated to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) for UBE implementation to four per cent.

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Bobboyi speaking at the one-day Civil Society Organisations CSO-legislative round-table, buttressed his position for an increase in funding to the commission in view of the rising students’ population, security challenges that are bedevilling the country and the urgent need for improvement in teaching and learning facilities across the country.

He argued that while the children of the rich who are merely 20 percent of the population could afford to garner resources to attend private schools, the under-privileged constituting 80 percent are in the public institutions.

The UBEC boss equally tasked relevant civil society organisations, the media and other critical stakeholders not to shy away from rendering assistance to the government in bridging observed gaps in learning and teaching processes, especially at the basic school level.

Also speaking, the chairman, Senate Committee on Basic Education, represented by Senator Frank Ibiziem, decried the failure of the states’ Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) to sustain some UBEC-initiated projects such as classroom libraries earlier introduced by the commission in all constituencies in the country.

While commending UBEC over the construction of classrooms in schools across the country, he lamented the poor maintenance culture, noting that there is no school in the country that does not have a dilapidated block.

He called for a rapid response initiative to commence repairs of dilapidated schools and pledged the Senate’s support for any move by the commission towards ensuring the provision of a good learning environment for students.

A representative of MacArthur Foundation, Mr Dayo Olaoye, called on stakeholders to review the impact of the country’s annual budget on education, stressing that it was not enough that the country is increasing its budget to the sector.

“As we think about reforms, let us also think beyond the buildings that have been delivered, as well as on how many children have been brought to school,” he said.

He emphasised the need for accountability in the education sector, noting that “in addition to vertical accountability, there is need to entrench horizontal accountability whereby the office of the accountant general strengthens other accounting offices to ensure transparency in the sector.”