UBEC Unveils Deficit in Basic Education

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has disclosed that Nigerian basic education is short of 277,537 teachers.

The commission noted that there was a shortage of 135,319 teachers at the Early Childhood Care Development Education, 139,772 in primary schools and 2,446 in junior secondary schools nationwide.

UBEC noted that there were 27.8 million learners enrolled in primary schools, 22,384,755 in public primary schools and 5,504,632 in private schools.

The commission stated these in the 2018 National Personnel Audit (NPA) report unveiled by Education Minister, Adamu Adamu.

The report was conducted in public and private schools by UBEC with efforts from other stakeholders.

The document showed that Nigeria has 10, 193, 918 kids that are out-of-school.

Adamu thereby urged governors to take necessary actions to ensure improved access to quality education delivery in their states.

He said the government would ensure that all Nigerian children are given equal opportunity to complete basic education.

He urged state governments to critically examine the findings or recommendations contained in the report that affect their states.

“I am sure the report has revealed some gaps that need to be filled at various levels of government in other to improve basic education delivery in our country,” he said.

He further stated: “I therefore urge state governments to critically examine the findings or recommendations contained in this report that affect their states and take necessary actions to ensure improve access, equity and quality in education delivery.”

“States with very high deficiencies in teachers and infrastructure facilities need to redouble their effort to close these gaps,” he added.

He also noted that the Federal Ministry of Education would critically examine the findings and recommendations contained in the report and come up with policies and actions that would help move the sector forward.

He said the Federal Government had disbursed over N153 billion to state governments in the last four years for the implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) in the country.