The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says it will commence full implementation of its 10-Year Universal Basic Education (UBE) Roadmap, 2026–2035, in the first week of October.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Aisha Garba, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at the opening of a two-day consultative workshop with chairmen of the 36 State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and UBEC directors.
Ms Garba also unveiled the Basic Education Action Plan Management System (BEAPMS), a digital platform designed to improve planning, transparency and monitoring of basic education projects nationwide.
She said the roadmap and the new system were part of reforms aimed at moving basic education interventions from isolated projects to a “whole school approach.”
“For any state to do renovation, you have to do a whole school approach. A whole-school approach means you take a school and look at all the gaps.
“We are no longer going to be doing two blocks of classrooms in the bush and abandoning them without any fence or toilet,” Ms Garba said.
She explained that under the new approach, states would be required to identify the comprehensive needs of a school before their action plans could be approved by UBEC.
Ms Garba said that where a school required fencing, toilets, furniture, computers or additional classrooms, such needs would be included in the intervention plan.
“If you are doing additional classrooms, then it translates to how many additional toilets and how many students, and at the same time, you fix all the items that need fixing within that school environment,” she said.
The executive secretary also announced a revised matching grant formula that allows states to use UBEC funds based on their specific education needs.
She said the previous formula focused largely on new infrastructure, which meant some states could not access the funds because their priority was maintaining and improving existing schools.
“The new formula allows each state to look at its own needs because there is no one-size-fits-all.
“If the need on the ground is furniture, renovation, fencing, computers or other facilities, then states are allowed to address those needs,” she said.
Ms Garba added that the revised formula could also support enrollment materials and additional teachers where states identified increased enrollment as a priority.
On BEAPMS, she said the platform would give communities a role in monitoring projects being implemented in their schools.
“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.
“The amount of money accessed by a state will be publicised on our website, alongside information on the projects being implemented,” she said.
Ms Garba said the initiative would enable parents and community members to hold government accountable for funds accessed and projects implemented.
“With that, the community can hold us accountable to the money we have accessed from UBEC, the projects we are doing on the ground, as well as the quality of projects,” she said.
She said the digital platform had been under development for more than one month and that SUBEB chairmen had been fully onboarded ahead of the commencement of full implementation.
Also speaking, the Dean of SUBEB Chairmen, Shehu Adaramaja, said the consultation would help stakeholders develop a common direction for basic education delivery over the next 10 years.
“In the next two days, we will pay attention to all the strategies and initiatives towards the development of a roadmap for the next 10 years on how to provide access, provide quality service and strengthen our systems in line with the new basic education management system,” he said.
Mr Adaramaja, who is also the SUBEB Chairman of Kwara, said the workshop was a hands-on exercise, with directors of research and statistics expected to participate actively in developing the framework that would guide basic education action plans in their states.
He added that the scope of UBEC interventions was no longer limited to physical infrastructure, as other components had been incorporated to strengthen the delivery of basic education services.
Earlier, UBEC Director of Physical Planning Nura Ibrahim said the workshop would enable stakeholders to review and validate the proposed roadmap.
Mr Ibrahim said the exercise would also allow participants to contribute their technical knowledge and experience to improve the implementation of basic education programmes across the states.
(NAN)
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