UBEC to Conduct Assessment Based on Best Practices

Kuni Tyessi

The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, says the commission has concluded plans to conduct an internationally accepted national assessment.

He disclosed this at a five-day workshop to develop test items for Nigeria’s 2022 National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education (NALABE).

He said UBEC and UNICEF had put everything together to conduct an internationally accepted national assessment.

The national assessment is a survey of schools and learning to provide evidence about learners’ achievement in identified curriculum areas such as reading/literacy, mathematics/numeracy, science, and other skills for a clearly defined part of the education system.

In a statement signed by the Head, Public Relations and Protocol, David Apeh, Bobboyi said the workshop aimed to achieve “objectives amongst others to generate test items in four core subjects in primary 3, 5, and JS 2.

The executive secretary, represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary, Prof. Bala Zakari, said that since the inception of UBEC, the commission had conducted five studies, 2001, 2003, 2006, 2011 and 2017, based on its mandate enshrined in the UBE act of 2004.

The Director Quality Assurance, Mallam Mansir Idris, said the commission, in its quest to conduct a national assessment that will be recognised and acceptable by stakeholders nationally and internationally, identified the need to collaborate and work closely with international agencies like IEA, UNICEF, FCDO, and other agencies involved in large scale assessment for the development and standardised test items.