The Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC Dr. Hamid Bobboyi has lamented the myriad of challenges marring the successes achieved in the education sub-sector.
He flayed the insecurity in some states, which he said have slowed down school construction and results in the destruction of completed projects or abandonment of projects.
Bobboyi raised his concerns during a study visit by the Senior Executive Course 43 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru.
Details of the visit are contained in a statement signed by the Commission’s Head of Public Relations and Protocol, David Apeh.
Dr. Bobboyi, who was represented by the Deputy Executive Service Secretary (Technical) Dr. Bala Zakari, worried that parents now engage their children in economic pursuits such as hawking, child labour, begging and farming, increasing the rate of out of school children in the country
The UBEC boss named other challenges affecting basic education to include the inability of some states to budget for UBE programs, being slow in accessing the FGN-UBE matching grants, vandalization of schools and theft of School facilities and equipment.
He also lamented the use of schools as emergency rehabilitation centres, IDP camps, security camps, and politicization of basic education management.
Worrying that the situation is leading to an increase in social menace and school dropout syndrome, Bobboyi asked members of the Senior Executive Course 43 from NIPSS to interact with their UBEC counterparts on options and strategies to improve the situation.
The Leader of the delegation from NIPSS, Prof. Fatai A. Aremu said areas of interaction during the study visit will include frameworks for policy and program implementation in UBEC, program implementation performance, a comprehensive analysis on policy and program implementation in UBEC, among others.
