The recent increase of the matching grant of the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) programme to N3.5 billion by the federal government will boost enrolment in basic education. It will also reduce the number of the nation’s out-of-school children said to be slightly above 20 million. The increase represents more than N2billion increment from the previous N1.3 billion allocated yearly as matching grants. If the funds are assessed by the states, the dilapidated infrastructure in their schools will be fixed.
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hamid Bobbo, who announced the increment recently, said the additional fund came from 2 per cent of the consolidated revenue fund allocated to support basic education in Nigeria, following the passage of the 2024 Appropriation Bill and its subsequent assent into law. He said “state governments are required to provide an equivalent amount of N3.5billion as a counterpart fund to execute the 1st to 4th Quarters, 2024 UBEC intervention projects.”
SUBEB is an offshoot of UBEC (Universal Basic Education). The SUBEB Act (2004) was signed into Law in May, 2004, providing the legal framework for its effective take off and its implementation commenced in July, 2005, with the appropriation of funds to SUBEB and subsequent disbursement to states across the country. SUBEB was basically created to address the inequality in educational opportunity at the basic level (pre-primary, primary and junior secondary schools), remove distortions and inconsistencies in basic education delivery and reinforce the implementation of the National Policy on Education, as well as to ensure access, equity and quality of basic education throughout Nigeria.
It was also meant to serve as a model and anchor for school libraries development in Nigeria. Libraries serve as a pivot point around which teaching and learning activities in primary schools in the states revolve.
Sadly, this role is far from being actualised, especially collecting, processing, storage and making available and accessible information materials to support teaching and learning. Across the country, many of the SUBEB and learning resource centres (LRCs) are bereft of information resources. We hope that the states would maximise this opportunity to equip school libraries with books, e-learning equipment and furniture required in these libraries.
The implementation of UBEC has been hampered by lack of unreliable statistics that has led to poor projections, which has made it difficult for the facilities on ground to cater for the ever increasing school population in Nigeria. This has also affected the supply of instructional materials, including textbooks, laboratory equipment, and audio-visual materials to schools.
Other reasons for inadequate access to basic education in Nigeria include rising cost of schooling and poverty. With the abolishing of tuition fees in primary and junior secondary schools in many states, the infrastructure needed to give the students quality education should be boosted. Having millions of children outside the classroom will breed a generation of illiterate Nigerians who can easily be recruited for terrorism and other heinous crimes.
Let the state access UBEC and SUBEB funds to develop their education sector. The neglect of the education sector will impede the scientific and industrial development of the country. Govern at all levels should stop paying lip-service to education, especially the basic education system. Therefore, we urge the state government to prioritise basic education and ensure that every child enjoys free education from primary school to Junior Secondary School level.
No Nigerian child should be deprived of basic education. The right to basic education to every Nigerian child must be fiercely enforced. Parents who deny their children/wards basic education must be sanctioned. To enhance the nation’s literacy level, the over 20 million out-of-school children must be brought into the classroom. This is one issue the state governments should quickly tackle. Nigeria cannot achieve the much-needed socio-economic development when these children are still roaming the streets while their counterparts are busy learning in schools.
Reducing the number of the nation’s children outside the school system will help to curb the rising insecurity. We say this because some of the non-state actors terrorizing the country are children who supposed to be in school or those who didn’t have basic education.