Five states, FCT yet to access Paris club counterpart fund – UBEC

…Says it has developed new framework to enhance quality in basic education

Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, said on Tuesday that Anambra, Edo, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Kano states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are yet to access the Paris Club counterparts fund in full.

Bobboyi made this known when he issued a comprehensive list of states that have so far accessed the Paris Club counterpart fund disbursement to states made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

He said that Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa, Imo, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Delta, Yobe, Kebbi, Kogi, Ebonyi, Niger, Lagos, Ogun and Plateau states have accessed their funds in full as at July 9, 2019.

Other states that had accessed were Bayelsa, Bauchi, Enugu,Kaduna, Katsina, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Gombe Sokoto and Zamfara states.

He said that those that were yet to access the fund should come up and follow the required guidelines to be able to access it.

He added that for a state to access the current fund, such state must have paid 75 per cent of the previous year’s fund to be qualified in accessing the current fund.

However, from the document, Abia State was able to pay N2,330,682,113.57 as matching grant to be able to access the Paris Club fund – while Akwa-Ibom State paid N2,703,556550.86 to access its fund.

Also, Bauchi State was able to pay N2,268, 903,280.76, Bayelsa N4,187,682,198.84, Borno N1,473,832,843.82 and Lagos N1,473,832,845.30, among others.

NAN reports that the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono at a one-day meeting to strengthen partnership within the three tiers of government on the Sustainable Development Goals 4 (SDGs-4) urged FCT and other states that were yet to access the funds to do so for development of the educational sector.

Echono said the Federal Government had addressed the challenges of accessing the Universal Basic Education Fund using the Paris Club loan refund

He, therefore, commended states that had accessed the fund while encouraging the remaining states to do the needful by submitting the relevant plans.

In another development, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said it has reviewed minimum standard for basic education and developed new quality assurance framework to improve the quality of basic education in the country.

Executive Secretary of the commission, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, made this known in Kaduna on Monday at the opening of three-day training on the use of the reviewed standards and quality assurance instruments.

The training was organised for quality assurance officials of UBEC and State Universal Basic Education Boards in the North-West and North-East.

Bobboyi said that UBEC management had approved 2.0 per cent of SUBEB intervention funds for quality assurance in states, to promote effective and efficient monitoring and evaluation in schools.

The UBEC boss, who was represented by the Director, Administration and Supplies, Rev. Edwin Jarumai, noted that the quality of teaching and learning largely determined progress in terms of growth, development and global competitiveness.

He said that quality assurance involved all the processes that contribute to the attainment of expected learning outcomes.

According to Bobboyi, effective quality assurance system will drive quality basic education.

He assured that UBEC will ensure that all prescribed standards are met towards achieving the required quality in the basic education system.

“There is growing concern on the issue of quality teaching and learning in basic education. This means that we all have to rise and build a model for educational effectiveness.

“The quality assurance departments in UBEC, SUBEB and Local Government Education Authority will be strengthened with adequate manpower and means of mobility to monitor what is happening in schools.”

Also speaking, UBEC’s Quality Assurance Director, Malam Mansir Idris, said: “It is pertinent that we recognise the dynamism of quality assurance and understand the need for change if we must succeed.

“We must not continue to do the same thing if we are not getting the desired results, we need to be more pro-active and adopt a broad-based remedy to assure quality inputs and outcome in basic education.”

Idris said that the training would be conducted in all the remaining zones to bring all quality assurance officers on the same page.