The Federal Government has lamented that massive investments in the nation’s basic education sector have not translated into desired results.
The Minister of State for Education, Dr Yusuf Sununu, said this on Tuesday while declaring open the 25th quarterly meeting of Universal Basic Education Commission Management with the Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards in Abuja.
“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.
“It is really disheartening that despite the Federal Government’s huge investment, interventions and technical support, the basic education sub-sector is still bedevilled by 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 which have resulted to the falling standard of education in our country.
Speaking further on 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 SUBEB chairmen must also ensure that every child in their respective state benefits from the free, universal and compulsory basic education, regardless of sex, ethnic or religious backgrounds, language or status as this will reduce the out-of-school children syndrome”, he said.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, called for new approaches to holistically address problems of the basic education sector.
“There are emerging trends that demand new approaches in tackling them; these therefore call for new strategies. This is what informed the choice of the theme of this meeting”, Bobboyi said.
“We cannot continue to sit on the fence and allow our educational system to continue to deteriorate; we must take the bull by the horns and delete the name of Nigeria among the ‘Learning Poverty’ countries”, the minister said.
