UBEC: Nigeria has over 45m children in basic education | There’s a shortfall of teachers

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says Nigeria has over 45 million children currently enrolled in the basic education subsector.

Hamid Boboyyi, the executive secretary of UBEC, spoke in Abuja on Monday during a meeting on promoting partnership with the organised private sector.

Boboyyi said despite allocating over N100 billion to education every year, resources from the federal government alone can no longer run the system.

He said although the government is spending money on education, the sector requires more resources to deliver on quality.

The UBEC boss called on the private sector to appreciate the importance of providing education for children at an early age to contribute to the development of the country.

“Resources alone from the federal government cannot run the system. Nigeria has over 45 million children in the basic education subsector and with this number, we require the necessary classrooms,” Boboyyi said.

“A state may get a maximum of maybe N3 billion in the best times, but N3 billion cannot take care of these. It needs instructional materials, you need a lot of other things.”

Boboyyi warned that there would be dire consequences if Nigeria neglects the education sector.

He said UBEC is bringing together key stakeholders to have a functional relationship with the private sector.

The UBEC chief executive lamented that there has been a 29 percent reduction in the number of teachers in Nigeria’s basic school system following the COVID-19 crisis.

“Unless we can be able to pay our teachers and compensate them properly, motivate them it is very difficult to deliver the kind of education that we all dream of,” he added.

Boboyyi noted that part of the interface with the organised private sector is to work out a programme that can be beneficial to the development of basic education in the areas of quality and access.