The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, has urged stakeholders to invest in digital technology-aided education as a sure path towards producing globally competitive citizens.
Bobboyi, made the call at the 25th Quarterly Meeting of UBEC Management with the Executive Chairmen of SUBEBs, in Abuja on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the theme of the meeting is tagged: “Redefining National and State Priorities for Effective Basic Education Delivery”.
According to him, as the world continuously evolves, it is an ethical obligation for stakeholders in the education sector to redefine, revisit and rethink the national and state priorities for effective basic education delivery.
“Learners are constantly changing and since learning is an ongoing process, instructional practices must be refined and questioned over the course of time.
“As we collaborate to develop a clear vision and focus on our purpose of redefining national and state priorities for effective basic education delivery, the journey leads to flexible paths of promise which embrace innovative and creative approaches to instruction.
“We should always remember that one of the main objectives of basic education is to inculcate foundation for permanent literacy, numeracy, life skills, and ability to communicate effectively.
“To this end, we should constantly demonstrate the awareness that teachers and learners are important inputs in any educational endeavor and priorities must be given to them if the goals and objectives of the system must be achieved,” he said.
The executive secretary identified challenges in the sector ranging from out-of-school, learning poverty at the basic level and a history of others which he said must be addressed.
“Studies have shown that learners are graduating from primary school unable to read and write. Learning poverty is a function of many factors.
“Prominent among these are the quality of school governance, teacher quality, availability of essential teaching and learning materials, and the learning environment.
“This challenge must be addressed with the urgency that it deserves otherwise our educational system will be turning out dysfunctional citizens who are neither useful to themselves nor to their communities.
“It is important for us to determine where more resources should be deployed to rescue basic education,” he said.
He added that the UBEC Smart Schools were no more than models that states were expected to replicate.
He said a phased equipping of existing schools with IT infrastructure and training of teachers should be adopted as a strategy for transforming the existing schools to smart schools.
He, therefore , said the Commission would continue to support the states and FCT in this endeavour, especially in the areas of e-content development and training.
Declaring open the meeting, the Minister of Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu charged Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education to review the current state of basic education in the states by conducting needs assessment of all schools.
This he said was in line with a renewed determination to justify the Federal Government’s huge investment in education in the various states.
Sununu said that indices in education were not in anyway good saying that as at today, Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children.
According to him, data shows that a lot needs to be done and we must look at ways to redefine our priorities to address our challenges.
“Education is pivotal to every country’s development. Qualitative as well as functional education system prepares the citizenry for global dynamics, responsible citizenship and national development.
“It is a well-known fact that no nation can rise above the level of its educational development. Basic education is the foundation upon which other levels of education are built and a necessary requirement for personal and national progress.
“The foundation speaks of a strong building and if the foundation is lacking in the necessary quality materials, then the building will collapse. This applies to learners at the basic education level who need strong educational foundation for other levels of education to build upon.
“It is really disheartening that in spite the Federal Government huge investment, interventions and technical support, basic education sub-sector is still bedeviled with these unpleasant occurrences.
“Learners sitting on bare floors, high rate of drop-outs, increased number of out-of-school children, poor infrastructure, dilapidated classroom buildings, inadequate learning facilities, unqualified teachers, inadequate monitoring, inequitable access and low learning outcomes.
“This has resulted to the falling standard of education in our country. We cannot continue to sit on the fence and allow our educational system to continue to deteriorate, we must take the bull by the horn and delete the name of Nigeria among the “Learning Poverty” countries,” he said.
The Minister said the onus lied solely in the hands of the SUBEB chairmen to implement federal government policies at the state levels to increase equitable access for all children, improve literacy outcomes and strengthen their educational system.
“The SUBEB Chairmen must also ensure that every child in their respective state benefit from the free, universal and compulsory basic education regardless of sex, ethnic or religious backgrounds, language or status.
“As this will reduce the incidence of out-of-school children syndrome.
“I charge you to eliminate every form of school charges so that learners from indigent homes can also access basic education and contribute their quota to nation building,” he said. (NAN)
