UBEC: More matching grants, less political will from governors

Over the years, many state governors have failed to access the Universal Basic Education (UBE) funds to enhance quality education at the basic level. Recently, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) announced an increase in the matching grant from N1.3 billion to N3.5 billion to boost the basic education subsector. Stakeholders are, however, worried that with governors showing little or no interest in developing education at that level, the increase may simply be counterproductive to basic education, IYABO LAWAL reports.

Despite the failure of states to access N45.7 billion allocated for the implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) between 2020 and 2023, the Federal Government has reviewed the matching grants for infrastructural projects from N1.2 billion to N3.5 billion.

According to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), 27 states failed to provide the counterpart funds to access allocations set aside by the Federal Government for basic education.

Abia, Ogun, and Imo states account for the largest share of the un-accessed funds.

A breakdown of the figures showed that un-accessed funds in Abia State’s favour stands at N4.28b; Ogun State N4.26b; Imo State N3.54b; Adamawa State N2.6b; Anambra State N2.6b; Bauchi State N2.6b; Edo State N2.6b; Ebonyi State N2.6b; Oyo State N2.6b; Cross River State N2.04b; Bayelsa State N1.39b; Ekiti State N1.39b; Gombe State N1.39b; Kaduna State N1.39b; and Lagos State N1.39b.

Others include Katsina State N1.39b; Akwa Ibom State N1.39b;  Kebbi State N1.39b; Kogi State N1.39b; Plateau State N1.39b; Yobe State N1.39b; Federal Capital Territory (FCT) N1.39b; Rivers State N697m;  Kano State N581m; Niger State N237m, and Benue N20m.

The total amount abandoned by states in 2020 stood at N1.4b; N2.8b in 2021; N14.4b in 2022, and N36.1b in 2023.

Nigeria is currently facing a learning crisis, which has been compounded by the growing problem of out-of-school children. It is, therefore, surprising that some state governments have failed to prioritise education.

According to the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, only 16 states have so far accessed the 2023 matching grant, representing 41 per cent of the appropriated N51.6 billion for basic education.

The states are: Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Enugu, Jigawa, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara.

The executive secretary further explained that of the budgeted sum, only N21 billion was accessed by the 16 states as at June 30, thus showing 54 per cent utilisation.

He added that one of the challenges confronting the commission is the inability of some state governments to access UBE matching grants when due.

The increase in matching grants to the states, Bobboyi said, was realised from the two per cent consolidated revenue fund earmarked for basic education, adding that the grant complies with Section 11 (2) of the UBE Act, 2004, and state governments are expected to provide an equivalent amount of N3.5 billion as counterpart fund to execute this year’s UBE intervention projects from the first to the fourth quarter.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which recently estimated the total number of out-of-school children in Nigeria to be 18.3 million, said that one in three children in the country is out of school.

According to the agency, of the figure, 10.1 million are at the primary level, while 8.2 million are at the junior secondary school level.

UNICEF added that one in every five out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria, with over 60 per cent in the North.

What is more worrisome, however, is the fact that despite these staggering numbers, states have failed to access UBEC funds meant to develop that sub-sector.

Among other things, the UBEC matching grant, which states can only access through the payment of their 50 per cent counterpart funds, is meant to provide instructional materials, enhance infrastructural development including the provision of boreholes and toilet facilities, as well as, training and retraining of teachers to boost enrollment and retention in schools.

However, the funds, which have continued to accumulate over the years, have remained unutilised for the development of this critical sub-sector.

While the management of primary and junior secondary education are the primary responsibilities of local and state governments, a good number of states are not keen on funding the sub-sector to enhance foundational learning.

Basic education sinks as lifeline lies unused
FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo flagged off the Universal Basic Education (UBE) on September 30, 1999, in Sokoto State, a strategy to achieve Education for All (EFA) and the education-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The UBE is a nine-year basic educational programme to eradicate illiteracy, ignorance and poverty, as well as stimulate and accelerate national development, political consciousness and national integration.

A lack of enabling law hampered the smooth implementation of the programme until 2004 when
Obasanjo signed the UBE Bill into law, on May 26, 2004, following its passage by the National Assembly.

The UBE Act 2004 makes provision for basic education comprising Early Childhood Care Education (ECCE), primary and junior secondary education. The financing of basic education is the responsibility of states and local councils, but the Federal Government decided to pitch in with two per cent of its Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).

For states to fully benefit from the fund, a critical criterion was that it must provide matching grants or counterpart funding. This way, the states demonstrate commitment to projects, ensure funds are not misapplied through monitoring mechanisms included in the programme, and contribute to the sustainability of the fund.

The Act also provides for the establishment of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to coordinate the implementation of the programme at state and local council levels through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) of each state and the Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs). The Universal Basic Education Commission was formally established on October 7, 2004.

To many stakeholders, it beggars belief that about N47.5 billion lie dormant, with only a few states able to access the funds when there is a serious need for funds to develop the sub-sector.

According to experts in the education section, many states operating shoestring budgets and allocating scarce resources to “unnecessary” projects have been unable to provide their counterpart funding, which was reduced to 50 from 75 per cent during the administration of late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua.

Some state governors during the last administration, lobbied former President Muhammadu Buhari, to amend the Universal Basic Education Act 2004, specifically a clause in the law, which makes it compulsory for them to pay counterpart funds before accessing matching grants.

Should that seem far-fetched, they asked the former president to persuade the National Assembly to reduce their counterpart funding to 10 per cent.

But experts noted that such a move would spell further danger for education in Nigeria, whose fortune continues to decline with each administration.

According to UNICEF, “About 60 per cent of out-of-school children are girls. Many of those who do enroll drop out early, citing low perceptions of the value of education for girls and early marriages as some of the reasons responsible for this. Some northern states have laws requiring the education of girls and prohibiting their withdrawal from school. Girls’ primary school attendance has been improving, but this has not been the case for girls from the poorest households,” UNICEF said.

Nigeria’s National Assessment of Learning Achievement in Basic Education (NALABE) has been administered four times since 2001 by UBEC.

In the most recent round, students in primary grades four, five, and six and lower secondary grade one were assessed in English language, mathematics, and life skills in more than 1,500 schools, and the results show a decline in meeting learning outcomes.

Unlike neighbouring countries, Nigeria is not involved in cross-national assessments. It participated in the UNESCO-UNICEF Monitoring Learning Achievement project in 1999 and 2021. To the extent that results were comparable across countries, they showed the performance of Nigerian pupils to be among the weakest in sub-Saharan Africa.

This worrisome trend remains a major challenge in the delivery of basic education in the country and was a key motivation for the UBE.

How fund would have facilitated delivery of improved basic education
WITH sufficient political will from sub-national governments, the UBEC could play a major role in conflict-ridden areas of the country by rebuilding schools, addressing teacher training needs, and associated security challenges.

The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, a non-governmental organisation, said that in most countries with armed conflicts, government armed forces and non-state armed groups have used schools and other education institutions for military purposes.

This puts at risk, students’ and teachers’ lives and safety, impedes access to learning, decreases the quality of education, and compromises efforts to create safe learning spaces.

According to Human Rights Watch, between 2015 and 2021, attacks in the North-East destroyed more than 910 schools and forced at least 1,500 to close. By early 2021, an estimated 952,029 school-age children had fled due to violence.

As of 2019 in the region, where Boko Haram has targeted education workers and students, at least 611 teachers had been deliberately killed and 19,000 forced to flee.

The proliferation of private schools in informal urban settlements and slums in Nigeria points to a strong demand for pre-primary education.

In 2018, a Lagos State government-commissioned private school census revealed that over 85 per cent of pre-primary and 60 per cent of primary school-goers were enrolled in private schools.

This is true for most states in Nigeria, showing policymakers that there is a critical need to apply UBEC funds in improving junior secondary schools in the country where basic laboratory, library, sports, and technical materials are sorely lacking.

With all these in sight, manystakeholders, including the National President of the Association of Formidable Educational Development (AFED), Orji Kanu, believe that the government must change strategy, and explore other options since previous ones have not yielded the desired results.

“Since the inception of UBEC, we have seen over the years that many states are not accessing these funds, and with the increase, the states may still not be interested. Why don’t we explore other options?

“Whether we like it or not, it is the responsibility of the government (by our policy which states that there shall be compulsory free basic education for children of a specific age) to provide free and qualitative education to these children, irrespective of whether they are in public or private school. If the number of out-of-school children is not reducing, then, why are we channeling money through the same source?  The government needs to change tactics, it is very important to get the desired results, otherwise, it is going to be the same thing,” Kanu stated.

On his part, Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS), Kazeem Labaika, described as unfortunate, the fact that state governors are not prioritising education even with the increasing cases of out-of-school children.

He insists that all hands must be on deck to address this.

“How can a responsible government allow the number of out-of-school children to rise to that level? That means state governors are not taking education seriously. The unions are also not doing enough to monitor the way that governors spend the funds. In some schools, especially in rural areas, teachers may not be more than five, I believe if the unions are alive to their responsibilities, things wouldn’t have degenerated,” Labaika stated.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Universal Basic Education and Services, Mark Useni, described the about 20-year-old UBEC Act as obsolete and inadequate to address emerging challenges of basic education in the country. The lawmaker said that there was an urgent need to amend the law.

Useni, who is the member representing Takum/Ussa/Donga Federal Constituency, revealed that already, the bill to that effect has already passed first and second reading in the House, and is now at the committee stage.

He said: “The UBEC Act has been in place for nearly 20 years. From the time the law came into force till today, we have passed through several stages of development. So one cannot hold on to one thing over the years.

“Like the issue of un-accessed funds, if we don’t amend the Act, the challenge would continue to be there, but if the Act is amended and there are measures to make sure that we overcome un-accessed funds, then primary and secondary education would serve our children better.”

On his part, the Director of Finance and Accounts at UBEC, Adamu Misau, attributed the accumulated funds with the commission to a lack of political will from governors.

Misau blamed the mounting un-accessed funds on a lack of clear policy on funding basic education at the state and the local government levels.