In this concluding part, state governments react to the alleged dilapidated state of primary schools and non-payment of counterpart funds. Bisi Oladele and Yinka Adeniran, Ibadan, Toba Adedeji, Osogbo, Bisi Olaniyi, Southsouth Bureau Chief, Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin and Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi, report
FACTS
• Unaccessed funds with UBEC: N33.6b as of February, 2022
• N528,678,768,160.60 paid as counterpart funds by 36 states and the
FCT from 2005 to 2021.
• States owing the 2021 counterpart funds are: Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Rivers and Yobe
Poor learning condition bedevilling Ondo primary schools
St Francis High School in Oke-Aro, Akure, the Ondo State capital, is an example of the condition of many schools that dot the state’s 18 local government areas.
There are only 26 teachers in the school while the rest were hired by some individuals to help teach the pupils. It was the school authorities that hired a Geography teacher on N10,000 monthly salary for students preparing for the Senior School Certificate examinations.
Besides the dearth of teachers, many of the classrooms have no windows and chairs. The staff offices have no curtains or carpet. The situation of the school is a complete eyesore.
Several public schools in Ondo State are like St Francis High School. There are no chairs and the classrooms are dilapidated. It was learnt that many public schools, especially in the rural areas, are kept running through intervention from community leaders and Parents Teachers Association (PTA). The PTA, for example, has 300 ad hoc teachers employed in several primary and secondary schools across the state.
At the Community Comprehensive School, Akungba, there are 41 teachers and 35 student teachers. It was gathered that pupils provided chairs for themselves as the chairs provided by UBEC/TETFund were not enough.
One of the teachers said they need more teachers to enhance more qualitative teaching. Just like St Francis High School, the Community Comprehensive School, Akungba, has poor learning condition. Many of the roofs are worn out, blown off or leaking. There are no windows and doors in many of the classrooms.
An executive member of Akure South PTA, who pleaded anonymity, said it was the money provided by the body that many school heads used as running cost. He said the challenges were much in schools that are located in farm camps and rural areas.
He said: “In many of the public schools, there are only one or two teachers. We have to employ teachers for the children and we pay them N10,000 monthly. If we do not do it, it is our children that will suffer the consequences.”
The absence of teachers in Ondo public schools reflected in the annual quiz competition organised by the Worthy Purpose Foundation. In the last year edition, no public school in Akoko Northwest Local Government Area from schools participated made it to the finals. Poor performances of public school students made some individuals in Ikaram community spearheaded by wife of the traditional ruler, Prof. Gloria Momodu, employed some teachers to teach the students during and after school hours.
In this year’s edition of the quiz competition, one of the public schools in Ikaram, Otolomi High School, Ikaram, took third position.
Prof. Momodu, in an interview, said public school students would excel higher if government provided the necessary facilities.
According to her, “We run a coaching programme and pay six teachers to coach them in mathematics and English. We know that with proper education and support of the teachers, the students will do well.
“What is happening now is that most of us are paying teachers to teach in schools. This includes the coaching after school hours. I am happy there is progress and the progress will continue. I hope we see more improvement in education but we need the government to come on board and support.”
Akala of Ikaram, Oba Andrew Momodu, said employing of teachers into public schools is an annual event.
Oba Momodu said there were only two teachers in public schools within his domain and that the community resorted to employing teachers for the schools.
“Community schools are teaching based on local staff that the community is paying for. Quite a number of public-spirited individuals are paying staff in these secondary schools. We encourage the PTAs to take up this challenge. This challenge cannot be completely addressed by the PTA. We thank Governor Akeredolu for recruiting teachers into public schools for the first time in 10 years. We want the governor to make it an annual event. Recruitment of teachers should be a continuous exercise until the acute shortage is addressed,” the traditional ruler said.
What made the rot in Ondo public schools worsen were the many years of neglect. Former Governor Olusegun Mimiko spent billions of naira to build 20 mega schools across the state. The mega schools were categorised in Type A and Type B. The Type A category schools were to accommodate 1,050 students while Type B would accommodate 525 students. The mega schools were equipped with facilities like playgrounds and sick bays. There was, however, low enrolment into the schools due to distance factors. Enrolments into the schools were not up to 500 pupils. Today, the schools are now an eyesore.
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, at the inception of his administration, vowed not to toe the line of building more mega schools. He got funds and paid the accumulated counterpart funding to access UBEC grant with which he rehabilitated over 700 primary schools, built over 300 toilets and constructed new ones. The rehabilitation of many primary schools across the state led to increase in enrolment in public schools.
It could not be ascertained how much the state government has secured from UBEC or what it is still expecting to pay as Chairman of SUBEB, Olabitan Victor, could not be reached for comments. Several calls to his phone went unanswered.
In June last year, Governor Akeredolu recruited 1,000 teachers into public schools. This was the first recruitment of teachers into Ondo public schools in 13 years after the administration of the late Adefarati.
Osun: we ’ll access counterpart fund this week, kicks off 200 projects
The Osun State Government will soon flag off construction and renovation of over 200 classrooms as part of the action plan for Universal Basic Education (UBEC).
State Secretary of UBEC, Adeoye Bakare, in an interview with The Nation, said: “Osun State did not owe counterpart fund. We have signed the agreement of 2020/2021, which the state government paid. The money for the agreement will drop in our account this week. We are accessing the fund this week. We met 2018/2019 unpaid counterpart fund and we have cleared it.
“In the action plan, we have a certain percentage for renovation, reconstruction, water, agric, and sports. When we gather all, we have over 100 reconstruction and 100 renovations in the plan. Before April 2022, we will kick-start the action plan.”
The Nation gathered that the state did not have many records of decay in infrastructure in public primary and junior secondary school because Aregbesola’s administration embarked on several projects on development at the level.
Meanwhile, some rural areas, which have records of dilapidated infrastructure, have been identified and will be considered in April 2022 when the renovations and constructions begin.
Insecurity and banditry attacks affecting education in Katsina
The Public Relations Officer of Katsina State UBEC, Aminu Badaru, claimed that the agency’s action plans have greatly improved the quality of basic education. In an interview with The Nation on the challenges facing primary education in the state, Badaru said the state’s primary school pupils have performed better when they attempted external examinations.
But, the major contributory factors that impacted negatively on the growth and development of primary schools in the state were mainly the spate of insecurity and banditry attacks ravaging about half of the state’s local councils as well as the COVID-19 scourge.
According to the Annual School Census Report released by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and UNICEF, the state has 775,000 out-of-school children across its 34 local government areas as a result of banditry and COVID-19 pandemic.
The report added that Kankara and Kafur Local Government Areas have the highest number of out-of-school children. For instance, in Kankara, the report indicated that 75 per cent of children in the state’s largest landmark (1,462 km2) local government, dropped out of school upon completing primary school. It also indicates that 82 per cent of children aged between six and 11 attend primary school in the area. But, 28 per cent are out of school.
More worrisome is the report that only 25 per cent of the children between the ages of 12 to 14 are in junior and senior secondary schools and 75 per cent are out-of-school, thus showing that majority of the children that attended primary school do not transit to even junior secondary school (JSS). Rather, they drop out at primary level for marriage, farming or trading.
In Kafur, 71 per cent of children between the ages of six and 11 are in schools and 29 per cent within the same age range are out-of-school. Transition ratio from primary school to junior secondary school (JSS) is 65 percent and 35 percent of students are out-of-school, according to the Annual School Census of 2020. Thus, a total of 69,062 children are currently in schools in the area.
Findings by The Nation revealed that early marriage, poverty, socio-cultural barriers, transition, inadequate junior and senior secondary schools, lack of adequate learning facilities, banditry and COVID-19 are the major factors triggering the spate of the out-of-school children in the affected LGAs.
Access to schools in the area represents another challenge as most pupils trek for 15 kilometres to attend schools in nearby communities.
There is the urgent need, however, for the state government to ensure timely release of budgetary allocations for the funding of basic education to complement efforts of donor partners like UNICEF.
We ’ve improved counterpart funds payment, says Oyo
The partnership between UBEC and the Oyo SUBEB has witnessed a marked improvement in the last 10 years as the state government has been paying its counterpart funds of about N1.5 billion to access its total fund.
The fruits of this improved funding are shown in several projects being undertaken in several primary schools. They include construction of new classrooms, toilets and offices.
According to data gathered by The Nation, Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration has been matching UBEC funds for year 2018 till date. The only pending payment is that of fourth quarter of 2021, which SUBEB Chairman, Dr. Nureni Adeniran, said was being processed.
He said: “We paid our counterpart fund for 2018, we accessed and utilised it for the projects as approved by UBEC. We also paid almost the same amount of N1.5 billion for the 2019 projects. We paid for 2020 and got the funds. We have paid 80 per cent for the 2021 year. For 2020, the amount was reduced downward because of COVID. It’s about N900m in 2022. We are about to pay the balance of 2021.”
Adeniran explained that about 35 per cent of the fund is meant for junior secondary schools and about 60 per cent is meant for primary schools. In all, about 400 schools have benefitted from the funds through different projects across the 33 local governments in the state. Oyo State has 2,470 primary schools.
“Apart from this, we encourage corporate bodies, groups, associations and NGOs to rebuild schools. And we have been receiving positive responses from charitable organisations. We just don’t want to put the burden on our parents. Old students are also joining hands with the government to renovate, build new structures and other facilities, including perimeter fencing,” Adeniran added.Though UBEC/SUBEB funding has been stable, a majority of public primary schools in the state are in bad shape due to incapability of the state government to fully fund infrastructural renewal. With 2,470 public primary schools, UBEC/SUBEB funding is almost like a drop in the ocean given the level of infrastructural decay occasioned by decades of neglect of public primary and secondary schools.
Currently, classrooms are in different shapes. There are buildings that are derelict, and largely empty. There are those that are in manageable situation. Others are in good condition, having benefitted from UBEC/SUBEB funding.
We paid N7b as counterpart fund, says Kwara
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq’s administration, in one year in office, paid N7 billion to the UBEC as the state’s counterpart fund.
The administration accused previous governments of reneging on the payment of the fund, thus imperiling the state of both public and primary schools in the state.
The government added that it has restored the lost glory of the education with the payment of the fund. “With this, we have been able to access N16 billion from UBEC,” Governor AbdulRaman Abdulrazaq said.
The state also claimed that it had employed over 4,000 teachers of both public primary and secondary schools.
Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development Sa’adatu Modibbo Kawu said the state has embarked on comprehensive renovation of 30 secondary schools across the three senatorial districts of the state.
‘With EdoBEST 2.0, we are improving all schools in Edo’
Edo State Commissioner for Education Dr. Joan Oviawe, while speaking in Benin recently, as a special guest of honour at a leading indigenous oil and gas company Seplat Energy Plc’s education roundtable and award ceremony with the theme: Harnessing the Role of Technology in Nigeria’s Education Sector, said Governor Godwin Obaseki remained committed to the transformation of education in the Southsouth state.
Oviawe also called on stakeholders to continually support the numerous initiatives of Obaseki’s administration, especially in the education sector, to reposition the state and empower the teeming youths.
Also, Executive Chairman of Edo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Mrs. Ozavize Salami, at a recent media parley in Benin, with the theme: Current Developments in the EdoBEST Programme, also acknowledged the huge investments of Obaseki in the education sector, which she described as laudable.
She said Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST), a holistic basic education sector transformation programme, was aimed at increasing learning gains and an adaptive programme that had been leveraging learning to drive school and system level improvements to create an enabling environment for pupils/students’ learning and development.
Accoding to her, the gains, since its launch in 2018, cut across the three thematic areas of access, quality and system strengthening.
According to Mrs. Salami, the EdoBEST initiative stands on five pillars of system strengthening and organisational development; teachers’ professional development and quality assurance; curriculum development and learning outcomes; community engagement and partnerships; and school infrastructure and facilities.
The SUBEB chairman stressed that the success of EdoBEST 1.0 (first phase) made Obaseki to recently launch the second phase, tagged: “EdoBEST 2.0,” thereby making the initiative broader, with more beneficiaries, especially with the state now extending the programme, aimed at capturing all secondary schools and tertiary institutions in the state.
Mrs. Salami said: “We are training and recruiting new teachers, as well as giving priority to infrastructural development, in view of the rot over the years, especially prior to the emergence of Mr. Godwin Obaseki as Edo governor. We first embarked upon infrastructure audit to be able to plan adequately and deploy resources effectively to develop the state’s primary and junior secondary schools. We are making progress.
“Education is still free in Edo State, with most parents and guardians now preferring to send their children and wards to public primary and secondary schools in the state.
“Security is also being taken seriously and beefed up in Edo’s public schools, in collaboration with security agencies, so as not to expose the pupils/students to danger and activities of criminals, while special education for the physically-challenged pupils/students has a desk at Edo SUBEB. Seventy teachers were recently employed for primary schools with special needs and 60 tutors were engaged for secondary schools for the same purpose.”
Since 2015, Benue State Government has accessed N4.1 billion through UBEC/the state matching grant to improve quality of basic education.
The Benue State Government has accessed another N 4.1 Billion through the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC/ Benue State Government Intervention Funds to improve quality of Basic Education, it was learnt.
The Nation gathered that during the bids opening ceremony for the utilisation of fourth quarter 2018 and fourth quarter 2019 matching grant, about 771 primary schools were due for renovation, upgrading and supply of desk as well as chairs and learning materials for the pupils.
The Permanent Member 1 in the state SUBEB, Mike Kusah, told The Nation that already, work plans have been developed and approved for massive construction of classroom blocks, renovation and rehabilitation of dilapidated school buildings and drilling of boreholes to improve water supply among others.
Kusah stated that the huge investment through the collaborative efforts of the Federal and the state governments was geared towards providing access to quality basic education to children of school age. He added that merit capability and quality shall be the yardstick for selecting and award of the contracts.
Also speaking, State Coordinator of UBEC, Mrs. Augustina Sanchi, threatened to sanction contractors, who do shoddy jobs, urging them to ensure quality in their jobs for the benefit of Benue children. She also urged management of SUBEB to be transparent in the selection process. She thanked Governor Samuel Ortom for his passion for basic education.
The Nation that in each of the 23 local government area, about 10 primary schools have been renovated and given a new face-lift.
