The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has expressed readiness to commence implementation of its 10-year Universal Basic Education Roadmap, 2026–2035, in the first week of October.
UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Aisha Garba, said the roadmap would replace the practice of implementing isolated infrastructure projects without addressing the broader needs of schools.
Garba spoke in Abuja on Monday at a 2-day Consultative Workshop with chairmen of the 36 State Universal Basic Education Boards, SUBEBs, and UBEC directors.
The UBEC boss, who used the occasion to unveil the Basic Education Action Plan Management System, BEAPMS, said the Commission has moved towards a “whole school approach” to basic education development.
According to her, the new digital platform is designed to improve planning, transparency and monitoring of basic education projects nationwide.
She said the commission had introduced reforms to ensure that interventions were based on the comprehensive needs of individual schools rather than the provision of disconnected projects.
She noted that the new approach would require states to identify and address all critical gaps in a school before their action plans could be approved by UBEC.
“For any state to do renovation, you have to do a whole school approach. A whole school approach means, you take a school and you look at all the gaps,” she said.
According to her, the new system was designed to end the practice of constructing a few classrooms or supplying furniture without providing other essential facilities required for a functional learning environment.
“You don’t just put in a furniture or you drop two blocks of classrooms and you leave because you want to give out awards. No, you have to take in all the comprehensive needs of that particular school,” she said.
She explained that where a school lacked fencing or toilets, such facilities would form part of the intervention plan, while additional classrooms would be matched with the required toilet facilities based on expected enrolment.
The executive secretary also announced a revision of the matching grant formula to enable states to deploy UBEC funding according to their specific education needs.
She said the previous formula had largely focused on new infrastructure, leaving some states unable to access funds because their priority was no longer the construction of new schools but the maintenance and improvement of existing facilities.
“The new formula allows each state to look at their own needs. If their needs on the ground is furniture, if their needs on the ground is renovating all schools to ensure that our schools now have fencing, have computers, have furniture, then they are allowed to do that,” she said.
She added that the revised framework could also support interventions such as enrolment materials and additional teachers where states identified increased enrolment as a priority.
On the digital Basic Education Action Plan Management System, BEAPMS, being introduced by the commission, she said it will also enable communities to participate in monitoring projects implemented under the roadmap.
The UBEC ES said the platform would be made public to allow parents and community members to track projects, funding and the quality of interventions delivered 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,” she said.
She added that information on the amount of money accessed by each state would be published on the commission’s website, alongside details of projects being implemented.
“With that, community can hold us accountable to the money we have accessed from UBEC, and then also the projects we’re doing on the ground, as well as the quality of projects we’re doing,” she said.
The commission said the digital platform had been under development for more than a month and that the SUBEB chairmen were now fully onboarded ahead of the commencement of full implementation in October.
Also speaking, the Dean of SUBEB Chairmen, Prof. Shehu Adaramaja, said the consultation was important because it would help stakeholders establish a common direction for the delivery of basic education over the next decade.
“In the next two days, we’ll pay attention to all the strategies and the initiatives toward the development of a roadmap for the next 10 years on how to provide access, provide quality service, and of course, strengthen our systems in line with our new basic education management system,” he said.
Adaramaja, who is also the SUBEB Chairman of Kwara State, said the meeting was designed as a hands-on exercise, with directors of research and statistics expected to actively participate in developing the framework that would subsequently inform their states’ basic education action plans.
He also noted that UBEC’s intervention mandate was no longer limited to physical infrastructure, with other components now being incorporated to strengthen the delivery of basic education services.
Earlier, UBEC Director of Physical Planning, Arc. Nura Ibrahim, said the exercise would enable stakeholders to review and validate the proposed roadmap while drawing on their technical expertise and experience in implementing basic education programmes across the states.
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