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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said it will commence implementation of its 10-year Universal Basic Education Roadmap, 2026–2035, in October, with a new “whole school approach” designed to end fragmented interventions in public schools.
UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Aisha Garba, disclosed this in Abuja, on Monday, at a two-day consultative workshop with chairmen of the 36 State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and directors of UBEC.
She said the roadmap will replace the practice of executing isolated projects such as classrooms or furniture, without addressing other critical needs required to make schools functional.
She also unveiled the Basic Education Action Plan Management System (BEAPMS), a digital platform designed to strengthen planning, transparency, monitoring and accountability in the implementation of basic education programmes nationwide.
She explained that the new framework would require states to undertake a comprehensive assessment of individual schools and identify all critical gaps before their intervention plans could be approved by UBEC.
“For any state to do renovation, you have to do a whole school approach. A whole school approach means, you take a school and you look at all the gaps,” she said.
Garba explained that the approach would prevent situations where government provides a few classrooms or furniture while leaving other essential facilities, including toilets and fencing, unattended.
“You don’t just put in a furniture or you drop two blocks of classrooms and you leave because you want to give out awards. No, you have to take in all the comprehensive needs of that particular school,” she said.
She added that where a school required fencing, toilets, furniture or computers, such needs would be incorporated into the intervention plan. “Similarly, the construction of additional classrooms would be matched with adequate toilet facilities based on projected enrolment,” she added.
The UBEC boss also announced a revision of the matching grant formula to allow states to deploy UBEC funds according to their specific education needs.
She said the previous funding formula had placed considerable emphasis on new infrastructure, making it difficult for some states to access funds when their major needs were the rehabilitation and maintenance of existing facilities.
“The new formula allows each state to look at their own needs. If their needs on the ground is furniture, if their needs on the ground is renovating all schools to ensure that our schools now have fencing, have computers, have furniture, then they are allowed to do that,” she said.
On BEAPMS, Garba said the platform would open up the implementation process to greater public scrutiny by allowing parents and communities to monitor projects in their schools.
She said information on funds accessed by each state, as well as projects being implemented, would be published on UBEC’s website.
“This will also allow us to bring in the community to be part of the monitoring of the projects that we do on the ground. With that, community can hold us accountable to the money we have accessed from UBEC, and then also the projects we’re doing on the ground, as well as the quality of projects we’re doing.”
Garba said the digital platform had been in development for more than a month, adding that SUBEB chairmen had been fully onboarded ahead of its full implementation in October.
Also speaking, Dean of SUBEB Chairmen and Kwara State SUBEB Chairman, Prof. Shehu Adaramaja, said the consultation would enable stakeholders to establish a common direction for basic education development over the next decade.
He said the meeting would focus on strategies for expanding access, improving quality and strengthening the management of basic education in line with the new system.
Adaramaja said the workshop was designed as a hands-on exercise, with directors of research and statistics expected to contribute to the development of the framework that would guide individual states in preparing their basic education action plans.
He added that UBEC’s intervention mandate had evolved beyond physical infrastructure, with other components now being incorporated to strengthen basic education delivery.
Earlier, UBEC Director of Physical Planning, Nura Ibrahim, said the workshop would provide an opportunity for stakeholders to review and validate the proposed roadmap, drawing on their technical expertise and experience in implementing basic education programmes across the country.
