A meeting of all the SUBEB Chairmen and Hon. Commissioners of Education with the UBEC Executive Secretary and the Management Team just ended on 26/02/2025. The Executive Chairman of ENSUBEB Assoc. Prof. Hyginus Banko Okibe and Dr. Patrick Ochi, Permanent Secretary MoE, who represented the Honourable Commissioner, were in attendance.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
The themes of the meetings were Strengthening Partnerships for Quality Delivery of Basic Education in Nigeria. It attracted key stakeholders in the education sector (particularly basic education) who gathered to brainstorm and identify existential challenges and thereby recommend short-term, medium-term, and long-term investment priorities and deliverables for changing the narratives in Nigeria.
Topical in the discussion was the canvassed amendment of the UBEC Act and the development of a new framework for servicing basic education in line with global best practices. The review intends to address poor funding of basic education, inadequate school supplies, compromised school safety, and the compelling infrastructure gaps that affect state peculiarities and priorities in programme conception, development, and implementation.
UBEC used the occasion to present state performances in critical areas of modeling initiative and implementation guidelines. The essence is to challenge each state to understand where it has strengths and strategic areas that require urgent review to align with the overall success of UBEC activities.
Enugu came 1st in providing the highest budget allocation (33%) to the education sector above the UNESCO 26% benchmark. This has remained a reference point in every forum in Nigeria.
Enugu came 1st for aligning its basic education programmes with the visions and initiatives of UBEC to transform universal basic education nationwide and achieve exponential growth in the literacy and numeracy index.
Enugu came 1st among the states that have a backlog of unaccessed Matching Grants but cleared the arrears and went ahead to access UBEC-FI Matching Grants up to 2024 and showing demonstrable commitment to partnering with UBEC, the Federal Government, and Development Partners to undertake joint ventures in addressing poor funding of basic education programmes in the state.
Enugu was loudly applauded for daring the building of 260 Smart Green Schools, the first of its kind in Nigeria, and was rated 1st and best in the provision of modern infrastructure to provide access to a decent learning environment and improve enrollment to reduce the out-of-school population in the state.
Enugu was marked as a leading state in the introduction of skill-based subjects: Robotics, Mechatronics, AI, and Experiential Learning. It has resulted in the invention of a new set of pedagogical structures built for the Smart Green Schools in reciprocation to the demands of the new skill-based subjects targeting migration of the children to scientific and technological-focused knowledge.
This inciting innovation aligns with the vision of preparing new generations of our school-age children and youths to adapt to the global changing labor and economy spheres.
Enugu is leveraging technology to enhance class attendance and management, development of lesson content and delivery, and monitoring and evaluation for quality assurance of the outcomes. In a short time, Enugu will be the 1st to digitalize and operationalize everything concerning public basic education management and administration in Nigeria.
The meeting was colored by Enugu’s exceptional records and the shining example that other states are advised to emulate. It goes to show that the ongoing projects and programmes in the basic education sector in Enugu state are intentional and determined to usher the new Enugu of our dreams and aspirations.
ENSUBEB is appreciative of Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah’s passion for skill-based education and childcare in Enugu state.
Tomorrow Is Here!