On Soludo’s free basic education in Anambra: A model for other states

With the announcement of free basic education in public schools in Anambra State by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, Anambra is set to surpass the provisions of the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act, LFN, 2004. Governor Soludo is not only a stickler for law and order, he is one governor that is focused on transforming Anambra and making it a role model in Nigeria.

Actually, many states in Nigeria pride themselves of offering free education in line with constitutional provisions and the UBE Act but, in reality, pupils still pay all kinds of sundry charges and levies in public schools in these states. In fact, despite the provisions of the law to provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every Nigerian child, payment of a compulsory levy by students in public primary and secondary schools across Nigeria was muted on the 63rd ministerial session of the National Council on Education (NCE) in 2018. This goes to show how badly some heads of public schools need more funding!

It is not easy to fund free education in Nigeria. Actually, the UBE Act provides for free tuition; textbooks in the 4 and 5 of the core subjects areas of primary and junior secondary school, respectively and the provision of quality classrooms and other infrastructural facilities within states. There are also various incentives by the federal government to ensure the success of the UBE programme. Meeting the provision of this law might remain a pipe dream for some states in the years to come in Nigeria.

The thousands of out-of-school children and the poor state of public schools in some states paint a picture of the challenges faced in the education space in Nigeria. The state of basic education in Nigeria is very worrisome. In its January 25, 2023 edition, The Guardian cited a UNICEF article that reported that 75% of 14-year-old Nigerians cannot read a simple sentence or solve basic mathematical problems. This seems to confirm a 2018 report that says that only 20 percent of those completing primary school in Nigeria can read.

Despite the UBE Act which allows for the federal government to provide 2% of its consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to support states in the implementation of the UBE programme, state governments still need to be innovative and devise ways to provide funds to complement the grants from the federal government.

Free education in Nigeria has been bedeviled with issues such as inadequate funding, inadequate infrastructural facilities, inadequate professional teachers, corruption, insecurity problem, poor supervision, poor learning outcome, poor implementation of basic education policies.
But things are changing in Anambra with the model proposed by Governor Soludo.

In September 2023, Governor Soludo suspended four public school principals who thought they could take the state back to the old ways of doing things. These principals and head teachers were used to charging all kinds of levies on the children of the poor – which they claimed were not school fees. Today, every head teacher or principal in public schools know that things have changed. The children of the poor can now breathe!

Free education needs to be supported with the provision of top quality and dedicated teachers.

With some schools without teachers, one of the first things the governor did on assumption of office was to recruit 5,000 teachers through a strictly merit-based process. The recruitment of another 3,000 teachers is underway in Anambra State.
But the governor did not only stop at making public schools free and massively employing new teachers. With the creation of Anambra State Educational Advisory Council – which the governor chairs with Osita Chidoka, former minister of aviation, as vice-chairman – Anambra State has set-out a clear roadmap to institutionalize a new funding mechanism that includes community participation and a robust education trust fund.

The council also plans to support the development of a single technology platform capable of providing students, parents, inspectors, and teachers access to Information, training videos, student results, and performance data across all metrics.

The council also recommends and plans to support the institutionalization of other mechanisms for enhancing learning outcomes, education infrastructure and digitizing public schools.

The training and re-training of teachers are not cheap. Governor Soludo is set to provide a robust training plan for teachers. Many remember that in the free education days of Chief Obafemi Awolowo some teachers in public schools in western Nigeria were trained in the United Kingdom.

The council recommends that the state joins the Program for International Students Assessments (PISA) as a sub-national government in order to globalize the quality of education in Anambra.

Anambra really needs these novel strategies to fund free and quality education. The cost implication for providing quality free education is huge in Anambra but Governor Soludo is determined to change the narrative in the state. In the 2022/2023 academic session, the state had 1098 public and 2694 private nursery and primary schools. The total number of pupils in public schools was 255,897 in that academic session. The state also had 263 public and 769 private secondary schools. The total number of students in public secondary schools was 133,741. (Note that the average annual cost to educate a child in a public school in New York – which is borne by New York taxpayers – is $20,000).

Anambra is on course in providing a truly free and high-quality education. There is a seismic change taking place in Anambra.
Governor Soludo believes that many in his generation will not be where they are today without the free and qualitative basic education they had in their time. The governor believes that the children of the poor should be allowed to reach their God given destinies and no one should prevent them from getting a truly free and quality education.

Nwankwo is the Special Adviser on Special Projects to Governor Soludo