As at June last year, the Federal Government said it had spent about N16.6 billion on textbooks and library resource materials to boost basic education. But, many things seem to have gone wrong with the project, writes JOKE KUJENYA
The school children were on lunch break. Some of them were playing football on the pitch of the junior secondary school in Area 10, Abuja. This reporter approached the pupils and asked them if they were beneficiaries of the Federal Government free textbooks’ project. Their answer was that they had not received the textbooks. A teacher in the school would not comment on the matter.
“Sorry, you have to go to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) please,” she said.
The pupils in this school are not the only ones who have not seen the books. Several others in schools across the country do not know about the project, let alone benefitting from it.
In schools where the pupils have the books, there are issues about the relevance of some of the books.
At Our Lady of Apostles Junior Secondary School 1, Mary Way, Odo-Ona, in Ibadan Southwest Local Government Area of Oyo State, the head teacher, Mrs Oni Modupeola, told The Nation that inadequate copies were supplied. Similar problem was encountered by Oba Akinbiyi Junior Secondary School, Mokola, Ibadan.
In a primary school in Area 1, Abuja, a teacher said the school only received Primaries 4 and 6 textbooks in 2011.
He said: “We have no library; we did not get any library resource materials. However, the books we received for our Primaries 4 and 6 pupils are not relevant to our school curriculum at all.”
A consultant on Education with the Ministry of Education, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Nation that: “The issue we should be looking at is sincerely not about purchasing or distributing books. That is not what is needed now. The core issue we should be looking at is what are the types of books we are giving out? Are they helpful for the ages of the children we are addressing, that is, primary to JSS students? I am saying this because with my years of knowledge in the educational sector, I honestly want to see things corrected. There is no way the FG can just distribute books and think it would meet the educational needs of the students concerned. As such, it is a process that must involve Heads of Education of respective states, education boards, such as SUBEBs and others. But the correction must begin where we are actually addressing the exact educational needs of our children across the country, if not, we will only be scratching the surface while the real problem gets deeply rotten. And it might take us more years of pains and funds to redress our wrongs. I only hope that by then, things won’t be too late to reverse.”
A female teacher, who confided in the reporter, said: “I am sorry to say that those books are not helpful to our own students. The challenge is that they do not tally with our curriculum in any way. Again, those who shared the books only brought for the Primaries 4 and 6 students. And they are not enough for our students. In fact, there is nothing we can do with the books, especially as they are not even relevant for our pupils at all.”
Yet, the project was launched with fanfare. Education Minister Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai was upbeat during the launch. As far as she was concerned, the free textbooks and library resource project would help rescue education at the basic education level.
The government, according to her, had spent N16.6 billion between 2010 and 2011 on textbooks and other library resource materials.
Prof. Rufai gave the breakdown of the N16.6billion. She said 24.5 million textbooks worth N10 billion were bought in 2010, 15 million textbooks, which cost N5.1 billion, and 4.1 million library resource materials worth N1.5 billion were acquired and distributed to the schools in 2011. She then added that in 2012, 14 million textbooks had been distributed and 4.6 million library materials released to junior secondary schools.
Vice-President Namadi Sambo, who represented President Goodluck Jonathan at the launch, lauded the initiative. He said it was part of the administration’s efforts to encourage stakeholders to improve the quality of education. He said the procurement of the textbooks and the instructional materials was a critical feature of the country’s basic education delivery system.
Sambo said: “Our goals have always been to strengthen complementary interventions in the provision of quality programmes that will pave the way for acceptable standards of basic education output. The FG-UBE textbooks and instructional materials intervention has so far achieved these goals… The programme conforms with the globally established notion that the availability and effective use of textbooks and other instructional materials contribute significantly to the attainment of higher level of quality learning … education constitutes an important component of the present administration’s transformation agenda, while other key frame-works, including National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and the Vision 20:2020, play complimentary roles.”
Speaking at a ceremony to kick-start the distribution of the items for the Northwest in Katsina State, Minister of State for Education Nyesom Wike identified the core subject areas in which the textbooks were provided to include English language, Mathematics, Social Studies, Basic Science and Technology.
Wike, who admitted that the textbooks and resource materials were not enough to go round, pleaded with those in charge to ensure the books get to those they were meant for.
He said the Federal Government was committed to the “policy of achieving a pupil per textbook ratio of 1:1 in all taught subjects across all levels of the basic education system”.
He said government would continue to “intervene in basic education through its agencies, especially in the provision and upgrading of critical infrastructure, the training and retraining of teachers, as well as the provision of free textbooks and library resource materials”.
The then Executive Secretary,
UBEC, Dr. Ahmed Modibbo,
said the objective of “a book to pupil ratio of 1:1 in the core subjects” was already being achieved at the lower primary schools.
He said three states had already achieved the 1:1 book to pupil ratio in all the primary school, with call on other states to step up their efforts in this direction.
Wike said the funding of the book project came from the 15 per cent of the 2 per cent Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), an intervention fund approved by Council in 2008.
The printing of the books was awarded to Messrs Macmillan Publishers, HBN Publishers and Universal Press (UP), among others.
UBEC and SUBEBS
Lagos, Ogun and Bauchi asked to be exempted from the project because they were already providing educational materials for their own pupils. So instead, each of the states was given N250 million.
A source said some states sabotaged the UBEC’s efforts in the books’ distribution project. He said: “Some of the states are protesting the fact that they were not given the privilege to award the contracts for the books. As such, some of them just pile up the books in their stores and refused to distribute them to the relevant schools.”
Rivers State Commissioner for Education Mrs. Alice Lawrence-Nemi, in an interview with The Nation alst year, said: “While I cannot answer you precisely on how many copies or cartons of the Federal Government books were given to Rivers State, I would still like to thank the Federal Government for the initiative. However, I am not in a position to know the exact quantity brought to my state. As the Commissioner for Education, I am aware of the books being given to our state by the FG. The Chairman of Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board (RSUBEB) will always pass such things through my office. So yes, we received books from the FG, including the ones from the recent flag-off. The issue here is that, yes, while the Rivers State got the books, in September of every year, every child receives books from the government. This is bearing in mind that since the advent of this administration, one of our key focus areas has been ‘free education’.
“So, as I speak to you, books for the next academic session are almost ready for movement to the warehouse for easy distribution so that by the time the students get back to school, they are just handed their books. However, while we still thank the FG for the fact that states, and even those that may not be able to afford a free education scheme get these books, the only caution I would like to offer is in the area the books getting into wrong hands who may end up merchandising them. Some women, during a conference I attended recently in Cross River State hinted that the FG books are already seen in the markets being sold. Later, we investigated and realised that it was some of the books the FG gave to states UBEBs. I give this example to let us know the importance of knowing the number of our respective students and their actual book needs, which will greatly help the distribution processes. I recall that the Minister of State for Education, Wike recently noted that they have set up a committee on distribution and I seriously hope that those books will get into the hands of every child it was meant for.”
Asked if the books con
formed with the Rivers
State academic curriculum, Mrs. Lawrence-Nemi said: “In Rivers State, we domesticate our books so that they can conform with our syllabus for the educational needs of our students. But in answering your question, all I was told was that the books were coming. And we have a quality assurance agency where we send whatever comes into the states to look at and let us know if they are in line with our expectations. I think this will be a good question for Professor Obioma who is a guru in school curriculum. And I want to believe that before the books were purchased, they must have asked him if they were in line with the educations programme of our pupils and to know if they would be suitable for every state or not. And we buy our books from the National Research Centre which is why we are able to easily domestic them for our own students.”
Permanent Board Member, Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board (RSUBEB), Worluh Lucky, said: “When we got the books, we forwarded them to the Education Secretaries who are the heads of the Local Education Authorities (LEAs). We in turn directed them to final consumers which are the schools. And we make sure that from time-to-time we do what is called routine supervision to confirm if they actually got to the students.
“But we have a peculiar case in our state. Our government is already applying total free education. Our governor provides school uniforms, books for all the school children, paying the primary school teachers’ salaries, which by law is a responsibility of the local government councils. So our point in Rivers State is that instead of the FG spending from our Federation Account duplicating the efforts that has been on ground since inception of this administration; the money should be sent directly to our government to cushion the effects of the books being procured for school children in this state so that we can curb wasting funds for one similar intent. So, we think there should be a holistic approach to the procurement and distribution of books across the federation. Since we have a system that is already working effectively in the area of our education in this state, we expect that the FG should buy into the idea and convert that into funds for us to do other better things for the state. I pray that at the end of the day, we won’t just be bringing books for bringing sake.”
On if the books brought to Rivers State are helpful to the academic scheme, Lucky said: “I don’t have authority to speak on that. Sadly, that brings us back to a salient point that education is not an issue someone sits somewhere and begins to run the educational needs of the thirty-six states of the federation without having a thorough understanding of the people’s exact needs. And these thirty-six states have their governor, commissioners and boards operating in the educational areas and so on. That is why there is so much hitch about the so-called books distribution all over. Now, this is aside from the fact that we all have different culture and publishers. So, the situation where one publisher is publishing a book that would be sent to the thirty-six states is somehow. We are saying that we are not comfortable with those books from UBEC. They should liaise with our state government and see how we can come out with one uniformed book for specific set of students. A situation where the FG is brining to us books just as we are giving to our students is just not understandable. Let the FG harmonise with us in charting one course in terms of education as it relates to the initiatives of the respective states of the federation.”
He said the way the UBEC
books are distributed to the
states do not help matters, adding: “UBEC books come without timetable. But we need to plan. When you know that certain number of books are going to be sent to your state, you make due preparations so that within one hour, they all get to the right places they are meant for. So, my major concern is that Nigeria needs to move forward because this country has come a long way and we cannot continue to do things like this for too long. We must look at our conscience and ask: are we doing what is right the right way? Are we really solving the problem or just doing things to offer benefits that are taking the country to nowhere?”
Executive chairman, Lagos SUBEB Mrs Kadijat Gbolahan Daodu said the state opted out of the project.
She said: “We are not collecting the books because I met with the UBEC executive secretary during one of our zonal meetings and I was able to persuade him that Lagos could be excused from the duplication of books’ distribution. And he honoured my pleas. But then, it did not come easy. The UBEC initially sent their officials to come to Lagos to verify our claims. It was when they were satisfied that we were able to win their confidence. So, while it is on record that Lagos is not collecting the books. We are among the three states slated for monetary compensation.”
Sanction for erring publishers
For their failure to deliver the textbooks within the specified contract dates, the Federal Government last year blacklisted nine leading publishing firms.
Among those blacklisted were Evans Publisher, University Press Limited, Spectrum, McmilLan Publishers, Learn African Plc and Africana First Publishers.
The publishers were given up till November 30 last year to print and supply all the books.
Wike, who announced the sanction at a meeting with the representatives of the publishing outfits, said the Federal Government had committed N7.5 billion to the printing of the text books.
That is different from the N16.6 billion spent on the project between 2010 and 2011.
The minister lamented what he described as the lukewarm attitude of the publishers to the delivery of the project, adding that many people take government for a ride with the belief that government cannot take decision and abide by it.
He said: “This is exactly what has been happening and sanctions must be applied when necessary. We must invoke the law to address some of these lapses on the part of contractors. You are begging us to extend the grace period but Nigerians cannot get their books just because of your inefficiency.”
The publishers attributed their inability to meet up with the contract deadline to bureaucratic bottlenecks at the seaport. They lamented the absence of storage facilities at the designated states for the books.
Certainly, there are challenges the Federal Government must address if the project is to have the desired effect. For now, it is not.
Additional reports from Bisi Olaniyi, Port Harcourt, Oseheye Okwuofu, Ibadan and Osagie Otabor, Benin
