Federal Government Blames States for Poor Quality of Nigeria’s Basic Education

Federal Government has blamed state governments for the low quality education in Nigeria’s Basic Education Sector.

It accused the states of not justifying the huge fund being pumped into the basic education sector in the states through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)

Education Minister of State, Dr. Yusuf Sununu expressed the concern during the quarterly meeting of UBEC management with the executives of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in Abuja.

The minister lamented that the learning environment in the primary and junior secondary schools in the states was worrisome despite the huge allocation of fund by UBEC to improve the quality of education in the sector.

According to him, despite the huge allocation, pupils are still sitting on the floor in some of the schools, while the number of out-of-school children and those dropping out continues to rise.

The minister also lament the poor infrastructure, dilapidated classrooms buildings, inadequate learning facilities and unqualified teachers in some of the schools at the state level.

Sununu said there is low enrollment in public schools across the states of the federation because of the poor quality of public schools as well as the challenge of insecurity.

He disclosed plans to meet with the Governors Forum over the poor state of education in some states of the federation, saying there is the urgent need for the provision of more school infrastructure, adequate learning materials, employment of more qualified teachers, motivation for the teachers and ensuring all your schools are constantly monitored.

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He added, “The investment so far in education is extremely commendable but the output is not commensurate; not matching the input, therefore we need to do something about that.

”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,” the minister said.

Speaking further at the event which had its theme as ‘Redefining National and State Priorities for Effective Basic Education Delivery”, the minister called for new strategies and collaborative efforts between the federal and state governments to address the identified problems.

“The theme is very apt because there are so many reasons we should sit down and redefine our priorities. Indices in the education (sector) are not in any way good,” the minister said.

Sununu noted that it is unacceptable that Nigeria parades the highest number of out-of-school children in the world as well as the highest low literacy rate, with a national average of about 62 percent.

The minister, however, expressed the readiness of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to transform the nation’s education sector through the Renewed Hope Agenda, adding that the federal government is ready to commit more funds to the sector to boost access and quality learning.

Sununu particularly called on chairmen of SUBEBs to review the current state of basic education in their various states by conducting a needs assessment of all schools with a renewed determination to justify the Federal Government’s huge investment in the states.

He urged the SUBEB chairmen to work with UBEC to take Nigeria off the list of the world’s learning poor countries.