Lack of political will by governors hampering basic education

In some states across the country, primary school pupils huddle under trees to attend classes, while in others states, they take lessons in utterly decrepit and squalid enclosures, devoid of basic classroom furnishing. Scenarios like these make learning an arduous exercise. Additionally, in some states, primary school teachers are owed salary arrears of several months. With this pathetic picture in place, it is difficult to understand why N80. 9bn meant to aid the growth and development of basic education in 30 states lie untouched at the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) as recently revealed by the commission. ENO-ABASI SUNDAY writes on this ugly development, which is being perpetrated by the failure of the affected state governors to make available their matching grants. Expectedly, this lack of political will by the affected helmsmen has stunted the growth of basic education in the affected states in particular and the country immensely.

If there ever existed doubts about the near non-existence of basic amenities in our public primary and secondary schools, and some privately owned ones, such doubts were effectively erased when teachers across the country refused to return to classes in the wake of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) containment by the Federal Government.

That deadly public health challenge effectively exposed the very weak underbelly of Nigerian public schools and the need for authorities to protect the future of coming generations by strengthening these structures.

In the wake of the EVD containment, and in line with the ad-hoc nature that most things in the country are done, governments at different tiers had approved different sums of money to school heads for the procurement of plastic buckets, liquid soaps and hand sanitizers.

Barely one year down the line, these buckets of water are no more performing their assigned functions, just as the hand sanitizers and liquid soaps have run dry, necessitating a return to the status quo ante in schools right across the country.
“It is easy for us to get money and buy plastic buckets, get someone to mount taps on them and put some water in there for use, but after we run out of the water, where do we get more water from” was how a primary school head in Edo State reacted to the order to return to school.

For any sane thinker that understands the need to give maximum attention to Early Child Development (ECD), especially in the areas of medicare and education, the actions of most Nigerian governors, who have treated basic education with kid gloves, bothers on sheer distaste.

This is because while the governors whine perennially about the dearth of funds to give basic education- primary education in particular- the very much-needed makeover in their respective domains, tonnes of money lie un-accessed at the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the statutory body designed to be the key driver of development at that level of education.
Establishment/mandate of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)

The Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme, a nine-year basic educational programme, and Nigeria’s strategy for the achievement of Education for All (EFA) and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), was launched on September 30th, 1999 by the Federal Government. It was basically aimed at eradicating illiteracy, ignorance and poverty as well as stimulates and accelerates national development, political consciousness and national integration.

The implementation process of the programme got underway same year, but progress was hampered by lack of an enabling law to execute certain aspects of it. However, it was such a big relief former President Olusegun Obasanjo, signed the UBE Bill into law on 26th May 2004.

The UBE Act 2004 makes provision for basic education comprising of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), primary and junior secondary education. Notwithstanding the financing of basic education being the responsibility of states and local governments, the Federal Government decided to intervene in the provision of the all-important basic education with two per cent of its Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Provision for the establishment of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to co-ordinate the implementation of the programme at the states and local government through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) of each state and the Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs) is made in the Act. Consequently, the UBEC was formally established on October 7th, 2004.

While the agency has a mission to operate as an intervention, coordinating and monitoring agency to progressively improve the capacity of states, local government agencies and communities in the provision of unfettered access to high qualitative basic education in the country, the UBE programme is specifically meant to ensure unfettered access to nine years of formal basic education; ensure the provision of free basic education for every Nigerian child of school going age; reducing drastically, the incidence of drop-out from the formal school system, through improved relevance, quality and efficiency as well as ensuring the acquisition of appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative, communicative and life skills as well as the ethical, moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning.
Starving in the midst of plenty

With this outlined mandate, it is safe to conclude that UBEC is to basic education, what the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) is to tertiary education. But empirical evidence indicate that while the outfit strives to contribute its quota to the country’s educational advancement, as an intervention and regulatory agency saddled with the task of promoting uniform, qualitative and functional basic education in Nigeria, state governors are not helping matters.

Last June, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) made a very unpleasant disclosure when it revealed that 23 out of the 36 states of the federation were owing workers, (which includes public school teachers) their salaries. Specifically, states like Kwara, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Kogi and Benue states have become infamous, owing to their inability to pay teachers at this level of education, their salaries and sundry wages.

Curiously, the affected states are prominently featured on the list of 29 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) that have N80. 9b UBEC funds allocated to them, but lying unclaimed.

While the debtor states attribute their inability to pay teachers’ salaries to reduced allocation from the federation account, a total of N177.6b has been available to all 36 states, and the FCT for the period 2009 to 2014. Each state is entitled to N4.8b, and only a few have collected their allocations in full.

States that have collected their allocation in full are Sokoto, Katsina, Kano, Gombe, Taraba, Anambra and Imo. Those that have drawn only a bit include Adamawa, Kaduna, Zamfara, Lagos, Bayelsa, Yobe and Kebbi states. Topping the chart on the list of non-performing states, according to the assessment and utilisation data released by UBEC are Osun, Borno, Jigawa, Rivers, Delta, Ondo, Akwa Ibom Edo, Ekiti, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Nasarawa, Cross River, Kogi, Abia, Benue, Enugu and Ebonyi states.

To access the funds, each benefitting state must not only provide a counterpart funding, but must have also judiciously spent what was allocated to them previously.

Benue, Enugu and Ebonyi states are the worst performing states in claiming their money for key projects in the sector as they have only accessed 3.9 per cent, 4 per cent and 4.5 per cent of their allocations between 2009 and 2014 in that order.

Ebonyi, which leads from the bottom and owing teachers salary arrears of one year, only accessed N311m out of the N4.8billion for the period under review. Enugu received accessed only N800 million and Benue got N900m.

Only recently, the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Godswill Obot Akpabio, while speaking at the Ibom International Stadium, at an event to mark the 28th anniversary of the state’s creation, intimated the people of the state that he was headed abroad to see his daughter, who is schooling there, when he got involved an auto crash that he momentarily passed out in Abuja.

Akpabio, now Minority Leader of the Senate was governor of the state for eight years. And between 2009 and 2014, while he was still in office, Akwa Ibom State was entitled to a total of N4.8b from UBEC. It only claimed N1.9 leaving N2.9 un-accessed. Meanwhile in some parts of the state, schools are so decrepit that students sit on bare floor and broken down desks to learn while the government talks about free education with gusto.

One of those who find it difficult to understand, why an oil-rich state, which says it is giving its youths a great head start in life would look the other way while basic education haemorrhages in its domain is Mrs. Lebari Ukpong.

It is abysmal to hear that N2.9b due to Akwa Ibom state from the UBEC fund has not been claimed when several schools in the state are beyond decrepit; buildings have no roofs and schools have no sanitary facilities. Laboratories only exist by name, outdated books take up spaces in the libraries and teachers are not regularly trained, appropriately remunerated and are owed salaries.

I know the state government renovated some schools and gave out pamphlets. But considering the outstanding UBEC funds to the state, schools in the state should have infrastructures that are fit for purpose, enough teaching materials and teachers that are motivated and committed. If the government has the will and commitment, education in Akwa Ibom State should have set a standard for other states to aspire to. Evidently focus was on projects that are more visible like the new stadium and hotel projects,” said Ukpong, who is the Managing Director, Inside Edge Limited, a market entry, education and scholarship consultancy outfit.

Considering the decadence that has enveloped the education sector, she stressed that the UBEC funds can be used to ameliorate niggling education issues and ensure that Nigerian students at the basic education level have the knowledge and skills required in the 21st century. These funds can be used to build very basic classrooms with suitable sanitary facilities, employing and training teachers to deliver relevant curriculum as well as remunerating them as appropriate. The focus on teachers cannot be over-emphasised because they can only deliver what they have or know.

Lip service to education must end now
Speaking specifically on the inability of state governors to come forth with their matching grants, which would have enabled them to access these funds, she said, “Literally all governors express a commitment to focus on and improve education in their respective states. However, education, more often than not slithers down on the policy agenda when pressures on budgets or other issues (like the next election) arise. Unfortunately, the benefits of educational investments are mainly seen in the future so they underestimate the value and the importance of improvements and would rather focus on sectors that can be immediately assessed such as construction of roads, hospitals, water projects etc.

The lack of political will by governors to access these funds stems from the stringent checks and balances instituted by UBEC, which they are not willing to be exposed to, and would rather asphyxiate primary education which is why approximately 10 million children are out of school,” she stated.
Ukpong, who is also a legal practitioner, advised that states that do not “access these funds should be made to provide cogent reasons and work out a strategy, with timelines for accessing these funds and with strict penalties. Groups like the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) should be able to pressure governors and also sensitise the public on the funds so that they can be included as a campaign promises.

Proprietress of Child Education Development Centre (CEDEC) International Schools, Lagos, Dr. Ijeoma Unachukwu, is alarmed that this intervention and relief funds to the primary and junior secondary educational sectors are left un-accessed by political leaders where need for deployment of such abound.

According to her, “Primary and secondary education remain the foundation and building blocks for a successful career in life. As such, they should be seen as the fundamental, and inalienable right of every Nigerian child. Unfettered access to nine years of formal basic education for every Nigerian child should not be compromised because to get it right is to equip the child to excel in life. So, anything that would improve the chances of the child benefitting maximally from it is desirable.

She continued, “If this fund is properly accessed by the states, there would be improved facilities; enhanced service delivery by teachers; motivation of pupils/students to learn thereby improving their performance; drastic reduction in the incidence of school drop-outs; and finally improved standard of education.”
“I agree with other experts in the education sector, that the inability of state governments to come up with their matching grants is as a result of lack of political will. The financing of basic education in Nigeria is the responsibility of our state and local governments. But the Federal Government decided to offer a helping hand with the provision of two per cent of its Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF). The state governments cannot claim ignorance of the difference accessing the funds could make in enhancing basic education. I appreciate that they are bedeviled with a myriad of challenges that make huge demands on the meagre funds available. The value they place on each challenge determines the priority they would place on it. Education of the child should be among the challenges given the highest priority because it is the common leveler,” Dr. Unachukwu stated.

She regretted that, “This lack of assigning high priority to education by most governors has impacted our primary education system so negatively that we could not meet the goals and objectives set out in the Dakar Framework for Action (2000), which was aimed at achieving Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015; and the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“The information age has made the world a global village, and peers of our children come from all parts of the world, and are just a click away. Soon our children who school and learn under dilapidated infrastructure and dehumanizing conditions ranging from congested classrooms, sometimes with blown off roofs, sitting on bare the floor and listening to poorly trained, poorly remunerated and ill-motivated teachers, would become demoralised and loose interest in education. Hence, they would lag behind their peers from other parts of the world, and cannot compete effectively in a globalised world.

On sanctions to be meted out to defaulting governors, she said, “Since state governors are the chief executives of their states, in a federal system of government, there is a limit to the sanctions that can be meted out to them without recourse to the constitution… The following could be commenced immediately: “monetary or other incentives could be given to states that are compliant; parents/guardians, PTA in delinquent states should be sensitised to put pressure on their elected representatives, both at the local, state and federal levels to interrogate their governors on the issue and labour unions in the education sector, civil society groups, students union and other stakeholders should be sensitised to declare delinquent states hostile to the education of their children and education committees in both chambers of the National Assembly should commence public hearings on the issue to come up with a solution that will compel compliance by all state governors.

QUOTE
States that have collected their due in full are Sokoto, Katsina, Kano, Gombe, Taraba, Anambra and Imo. Those that have drawn only a bit include Adamawa, Kaduna, Zamfara, Lagos, Bayelsa, Yobe and Kebbi states. Topping the chart on the list of non-performing states, according to the assessment and utilisation data released by UBEC are Osun, Borno, Jigawa, Rivers, Delta, Ondo, Akwa Ibom Edo, Ekiti, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Nasarawa, Cross River, Kogi, Abia, Benue, Enugu and Ebonyi states.