The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board and the Universal Basic Education Commission have agreed to collaborate towards upgrading basic education in the country.
The partnership would also see them build the capacities of young Nigerians towards meeting the needs of the ever-changing oil and gas industry and the linkages sectors.
The partnership opportunities were explored recently when the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe, hosted his counterpart from UBEC, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, at the board’s Abuja liaison office.
According to a statement from NCDMB, the two leaders agreed to set up a joint committee that would finalise details of their agencies’ collaboration, and contribute meaningfully to the future of the Nigerian economy.
It noted that the kernel of the meeting centred on how NCDMB could partner with UBEC to upgrade some dilapidated primary and junior secondary schools dotted across the country, train teachers and upgrade critical facilities to meet the demands of the current age.
It added that conversations also hovered around making basic education work sustainably, developing digital resource centres and smart school systems, and synchronising the efforts of stakeholders in the education sector for maximum impact.
According to the board, it has developed over 150 ICT centres in secondary schools across the country, upgraded select technical colleges, and intervened in some universities as part of its institutional strengthening programme, supported by international and indigenous oil-producing companies.
In his remarks, the executive secretary of NCDMB announced the introduction of a bespoke capacity-building project tagged “Back to the Creeks/Villages.”.
He explained that the initiative sought to revamp dilapidated primary schools, especially in the creeks of the Niger Delta and other parts of the country, develop their infrastructure, teaching personnel and curriculum to world-class standards and make the interventions sustainable.
Ogbe expressed his dedication to improving underdeveloped areas of Nigeria and mentioned that he had begun engaging with international oil companies.
He hopes the oil companies will embrace the initiative and channel their human capacity development budgets to the new programme for symbiotic benefits.
He underscored the strategic need to begin at the basic education level to develop the capacities of young Nigerians, rather than intervening at the senior secondary or tertiary levels.
The NCDMB ES disclosed that the detailed strategy for “Back to the Creeks/Villages” was still being fine-tuned and would soon be unveiled to industry stakeholders.
He assured the UBEC boss that NCDMB would partner with the agency, beginning with the training of teachers, hoping that the success of the collaboration would attract other entities to partner with UBEC.
He emphasised the need to develop complete project scopes and to make every intervention sustainable.
saying that could be achieved by getting the benefiting communities to take ownership of the projects.
Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Secretary of UBEC suggested that NCDMB should partner with the agency to develop, equip and operate digital resource centres and smart school solutions in states.
The UBEC boss bemoaned the embarrassing state of basic educational institutions across the country and remarked that a nation that neglected the first level of education had invariably embraced a bleak economic future and a dysfunctional society.
He rued several challenges that impact the development of basic education in the country, such as insufficient budget, and lack of interest by some state governors, among other issues.
He highlighted the need for collaboration with stakeholders, to leverage extra resources for the sub-sector.
On his part, the Director of Corporate Services, NCDMB, Dr Ama Ikuru, mentioned that the board’s interventions in schools and other centres of learning in the past 14 years were in furtherance of its mandate of building requisite capacities for the Nigerian oil and gas industry and linkage sectors.
