AS part of efforts to strengthen the quality of basic education in Nigeria, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says it is collaborating with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the conduct of the National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education in Nigeria.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, who spoke while monitoring the conduct of the exercise in some schools in Abuja, expressed the determination of the Federal Government to reposition basic education in the country.
A recent report indicated that 70 percent of Nigerian schoolchildren are not learning. The report which was recently launched in Nigeria is the 2021 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 6, with indices covering children and adolescents between the ages of seven and 14 years.
The survey was conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics with support from United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Bobboyi, however, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the ongoing National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education all over the country, noting that the exercise is carried out by the UBEC every three years to gauge the system of basic education in terms of standard and quality through the testing of learners in four core subjects.
Boboye said; “We are very happy with what we have seen in the various schools that we have visited. We went to Lugbe; both sides of Lugbe and then Asokoro. The conduct has been quite impressive.
“The whole idea is to sample some schools in each and every location in Nigeria on the level of access to learning. Our children go to school, but is learning really taking place? We don’t want someone relaying the story to us. The whole idea is to monitor things ourselves.
“It is an impressive exercise; it allows both the state and federal governments to assess first and foremost what it has got in terms of results from the exercise and put in the corrective measures.
“Other countries do things differently in this regard, but we believe that our method will afford us a window to peep into what is going on in our educational system; the opportunity to provide a data plan and necessary teaching facilities to support the education of our younger generation.”
Yetunde Oluwatosin who spoke on behalf of UNICEF also expressed satisfaction over the assessment, saying “we are satisfied with the way things are going.”
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