UBEC revives supply of textbooks to public schools

THE Universal Basic Education Commission has said it has revived the supply of textbooks to public schools, pledging that all textbooks needed by every Nigerian child in public schools will be supplied before the end of the second quarter of 2018.

Executive secretary of the commission, Dr Hammed Bobboyi, disclosed this in Abuja while addressing newsmen on the need to focus on Nigerian child and improving on quality of public basic schools across the country.

He said the supply of textbooks was suspended over two years ago owing to some challenges which he said have been resolved; and that the financial bids for the supply of the books are already in progress.

Bobboyi noted that the books were not going to be rationed based on state by state allocation or pro rata basis, but the focus would be on the Nigerian child.

He said it is the responsibility of government to ensure that every Nigerian child in public schools is provided with books and instructional materials.

“By the second quarter of next year, we would have supplied every textbook needed by every Nigerian child in public schools. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to make sure that textbooks are supplied to the children in public schools,” Bobboyi said.

He lamented the high number of out-of-school children that many reports have put at 10.5 million, saying that Nigeria ought to be in the class of Malaysia and Korea on basic education system.

Bobboyi stressed the need to build an entire different system whereby ideas of modern public schools with quality would be mainstreamed in the Nigerian basic school system.

He said further: “We need to build an entire different system, the kind of institutions that can move the entire education system forward in Nigeria. The world is moving and nobody is waiting for us, and UBEC is worried that we are lagging behind.

“Nigerians need to believe in our system. We have the capacity and the human resources; and if we judiciously use the funds made available, we will move Nigeria to the cadre of Korea and Malaysia.”

He noted that effective planning was lacking in the education sector, and that the education sector could not be built without having a strategic understanding of what the country wants.