Basic Education: UBEC Seeks Review of Consolidated Revenue from 2.0% to 4.0%
Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, (UBEC), Mr. Hamid Bobboyi, has said that emerging constraints in basic education delivery in the country might necessitate an increase in the consolidated revenue funds from the current two per cent to four per cent.
He hinged his call for an increase in funding to the security challenges bedeviling the country and rising students population that required more teaching facilities.
Bobboyi made the plea yesterday at a one-day Civil Society Organisations CSO-Legislative Round Table Meeting in Abuja, where some members of the National and State Houses of Assembly were present.
He argued that while the children of the rich who are merely 20 percent of the population could afford to garner resources for private schools, the less privileged constituting 80 percent are stocked with the public institutions.
The UBEC boss equally tasked relevant civil society organisations, the media and other critical stakeholders not to shy away from rendering assistance to the government in bridging observed gaps in learning and teaching processes, especially at the basic school level.
Bobboyi also stressed the enormity of challenges in the basic education subsector, stating that over 50 per cent of schools in the country have no furniture and pupils sit on the floor to take lessons.
Also speaking, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Basic Education, who was represented by Senator Frank Ibiziem, decried the failure of States’ Universal Basic Education (SUBEBs), to sustain some UBEC- initiated projects such as classroom libraries earlier introduced by the commission in all constituencies in the country.
He commended UBEC over the construction of classrooms in schools across the country but lamented the poor maintenance culture.
He also observed that there is no school in the country that does not have a dilapidated block.
He called for a rapid response initiative to commence repairs of dilapidated schools and pledged the Senate’s support for any move by the commission to ensure the provision of a good learning environment for students.
A Representative of MacArthur Foundation, Mr. Dayo Olaoye, called on stakeholders to review the impact of the country’s annual budget on education.
He said: “As we think about reforms, let us think beyond buildings that have been delivered, let us start thinking about how many children have been brought to school.”
He emphasised the need for accountability in the educational sector, noting that in addition to vertical accountability, there was need to entrench horizontal accountability where the Office of the Accountant General would strengthen other accounting offices to ensure transparency in the sector.
