The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has said that its three-year plan to reintegrate 10 million out-of-school children back into school will commence in earnest.
Speaking at a two-day retreat organised for the commission’s senior staff, the Executive Secretary, Hajiya Aisha Garba, said the move is in line with the commission’s strategic blueprint set in motion to reduce the out-of-school children menace by 70% between 2025 and 2028.
According to her, UBEC also plans to mobilise stakeholders to work in close coordination on key priorities in delivering the basic education needs for the betterment of children.
“The main objective of this retreat is for us to spend two days together with UBEC and SUBEB staff all across the headquarters, zonal and state offices to take stock of what we have done so far in the last six months since I assumed office and then also to look at the key priorities that we need to deliver in the next six months or next one year.
“Also, one of the key objectives is for us to work together as a team to foster that teamwork as well as collaboration with the national and state-level governments to ensure that our key priorities align and we deliver basic education for the betterment of the child, so this is the key objective why we are here,” she said.
She added that paramount before her now is to carry out immediate reform in Nigerian primary schools. According to her, the Universal Basic Education Commission, in line with the hope-renewed agenda of the presidency, is to ensure 100% access to education, reduce the number of out-of-school children, and improve the quality of education.
Already, the commission has worked closely with State Universal Education Boards (SUBEB) and constructed over 3,700 classrooms, established 34 Model and SMART Schools, provided over 142,000 units of furniture, and positively impacted over 181,000 learners.
