Five Decades of free Universal Primary/Basic Education in Nigeria and the Challenges of Sustainability

By

DR. ISRAEL OPEOLU OSOKOYA (Associate Professor of Education) Dept. of Teacher Education, University of Ibadan, Ibadan.

A Public Lecture Delivered at the 10th Professor Kosemani Memorial Annual Lecture, University of Port-Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria on 30th October, 2012
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INTRODUCTION Traditionally primary or basic education means the type of education, in quality and concept that is given in the first level of education. (UNICEF 1993, Osokoya 2011). The concept of first level of education varies from country to country. In some countries of the world the first level of education is of 6, 7, 8 or 9 years duration. In western Nigeria for example, the first level of education was of 8 years duration prior to 1955 when it was reduced to six years. In Eastern Region of the country, it remained 8-years until 1976, while the Northern Regional Government maintained a 7-year primary education until 1976. Between 1976 and 1992 however, the scope of first level of education in Nigeria as a nation was 6 years but this was later expanded to 9 years when basic education included the first three years of secondary school education. Education at all levels is of great importance to every nation, developing, developed or underdeveloped and thus attracts considerable attention over the ages. No doubt, at the family, community, state, and federal government levels, education is discussed, planned and processed. Education makes a person for it has a great influence on ones values and attitudes. Studies have shown that mans attitudes, habits; values are gradually acquired over time through his or her education. No wonder, the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) once observed that since wars begin in the minds of men it is also in the minds of men that defenses of peace must be constructed. This illustrates the great potentials of education for transforming the individual and the society. A constant assessment of a countrys educational programme is considered necessary if the nation is to develop and make progress economically, socially, politically and technologically. This is probably why studies on free universal education particularly at the foundation level became very popular in the last half-century as more and more western colonies gained political independence. In fact, free universal basic education had become central to the overall project of planned socio-economic development, modernization and democratization of the Third World nations. This lecture examines the ups and downs in the process of free universal primary/basic education in the context of Nigerias chequered political history and in the light of its
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geographical, social and political complexity. It also assessed the extent of success and problems in the free universal basic education. In addition it offers suggestions for possible sustainable paths to support future policy options,

THE EARLY YEARS. The system of education in Nigeria before the early free universal primary education programmes had been well documented by notable African Scholars as well as historians of education. (Fafunwa 1974, Obanya 1992 and 2002, Ojerinde 1998, Okoro 2000, Osokoya 1987, 1989, 2001 and 2002; Tahir 2001, Yoloye 1993). Geographically, Nigeria can be conveniently divided into two vegetational zones, namely; the equatorial forest (south) and the tropical grassland north. The two zones had two broad types of educational process and pre-colonial experience. In addition, they were two distinct protectorates of the British administration before the unification of the country in 1914. Furthermore, they were administered educationally in two different departments by the colonial government for one and half decades after unification of the nation as it was only in July 1929 that the northern and southern education departments were merged by ERJ Hussey the then Director of Education; It is not surprising to observe therefore that five decades after attaining political independence, the north and south Nigeria remained distinct socio-cultural, economic and political zones. In the pre-colonial era, the northern zone was the home of a Flourishing Islamic empire. Islam and Islamic education had developed in the area right from the 14th century. Islamic scholars from Bornu in the east and Mali and Songhai in the west spread the religion in the zone. Between 1452 and 1463, Yakubu the king of Kano has encouraged the spread of Islam. The immigration of the Fulani from Mali during this early period made a mark in the development of Islamic religion and education in the northern zone. Islamic education got its biggest boost in early 19th century with the Jihad of Usman Dan Fodio. Thus with the arrival of the western missionaries and the introduction of western education in Nigeria the Northern Emirs resisted
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the spread of education into the northern zone as they felt that it was an imposition of another religion in the area. On the contrary, the south being predominantly pagan during the arrival of Christian missionaries accepted Christianity and western education which the missionaries brought. The initial resistance of the Emirs in the north to missionary education gradually resulted to educational imbalance between North and South. The dilemma of closing the gap through political means later gave rise to such educational policies including educationally disadvantaged states, federal character, and quota system within a nation aspiring to be a just and egalitarian society. THE FOUNDATION OF WESTERN EDUCATION IN NIGERIA At the invitation of the ex-slaves usually referred to as returnees from Sierra-Leone, Christian missionaries arrived in Nigeria in1842. The first to come were the Reverend Thomas Birch Freeman and Mr. and Mrs. William de Graft representing the Wesleyan Methodist Society. They arrived at Badagry on 24th September 1842 where they built a mission house and a school. The Wesleyan mission thus established the first western oriented school in Nigeria in 1842. It was named Nursery of the infant church. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) which later played a more prominent role in the development of education in the country arrived barely three months after the arrival of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. The CMS represented by Rev. Henry Townsend landed in Badagry on 19th December 1842. Rev. Townsend was later accompanied by Rev. C.A. Gollmer and Rev. Ajayi Crowther and their wives. They established a station in Badagry, and built two schools in 1842. The Presbyterian mission followed with the establishment of a station at Calabar in 1846. The Southern Baptist Convention also landed at Ijaiye Orile in 1853 and established a mission primary school. The Roman Catholic joined the race when Padre Anthonio arrived in Lagos in 1868. There was an expansion of western education to northern Nigeria during the Samuel Ajayi Crowther led first and Second Niger expedition in 1854 and 1857 respectively. These Christian missions founded elementary schools and built churches at their different locations on arrival in Nigeria (Osokoya 2003).
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Thirty years after the arrival of the western missionaries, education in Nigeria was still a monopoly of the church missions. It was only in the year 1872 that the colonial government made available the sum of 30 to each of the three missionary societies involved in educational activities in Lagos, the CMS, the Wesleyan Methodist and the Catholic to support their educational activities (Fafunwa 1991). This perhaps marked the beginning of the grants-in-aid to education which formed the major educational financing policy of the colonial government and was subsequently adopted by the government of the First Republic of Nigeria. In 1877, the grants-in-aid were increased to 200 per year for each of the three missions. The grants-in-aid stood at that amount until 1882. (Osokoya 1999) The school curriculum in the missionary/colonial education was heavily religious-biased, intensely denominational and shallow in content. The school buildings, often the same building as the churches, were ill-equipped. The blackboards, chalk and slates were in short supply and the primers were largely religious tracts consisting of information unrelated to local background. Literature in the vernacular was also scanty. (Fafunwa 1974) In 1899, the first government primary school was opened in Lagos for the education of Muslim children. By the year 1912, there were 150 primary schools under colonial government control in the colony and protectorate of Southern Nigeria with a total enrolment of some 16,000 pupils. (Ukeje and Aisiku 1982). The story in the Northern protectorate was however different. While western education became the prevalent and dominant type of education in the South, Quranic education remained for many decades, the only kind of education in the north. In 1913, there were some 19,073 Quranic schools with an enrolment of 143,312 pupils in the Northern Nigeria. (Fafunwa 1991). Missionary education progressed at a slow pace during this period in the northern protectorate. Table 1 shows the school population of the Northern Protectorate.

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Table 1: Schools in Northern Nigeria in 1913

S/N

School owners

No. of School

No. of Pupils

1.

CMS

13

2.

Sudan United Mission

63

3. 4.

Sudan Interior Mission Mennotite Brethen in Christ

7 3

38

5. 6. 7.

Roman Catholic Government Schools Quranic Schools

3 12 19,073

60 527 143,312

Source: Fafunwa (1974) p. 109

THE FIRST UNIVERSAL EDUCATION SCHEME The first UPE scheme in Nigeria came on the wake of self-government starting from the West in 1955. It was the era of resource control at the regional level and of healthy competition among the three constituent regions-namely North, West and East. The Action Group won the first election to the Western House of Assembly in 1952. In his budget speech the leader of the Party, Chief Obafemi Awolowo gave priority to education and health. In July 1952, the West Minister of Education, Chief S.O. Awokoya submitted a comprehensive recommendation for the introduction of a free universal and compulsory primary education for the region by 1955. The master plan for the programme included a massive teacher training scheme, expansion of teacher training facilities as well as those of

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secondary and technical education. Secondary modern school was planned to take care of those who could not find placement in the secondary institution. Before the Launching of the scheme, the various educational problems facing the region were outlined and efforts were made to solve such problems between 1952 and 1954. The regional government also embarked upon an intensive public enlightenment to seek for the parents cooperation in order to release their wards for the free education at the primary level. The mass media were used for the massive awareness of the relative importance of education especially among the illiterate parents. Other preparations included massive training of teachers for primary school level. Teachers Grade Three institutions were established to supplement the teacher education programmes at the Higher Elementary level. In addition, school buildings were constructed to accommodate the teaming population of children that would enjoy the free education. On 17th January 1955, the scheme was officially launched with the word compulsory deleted but replaced with universal. In that month, some 811,000 children turned up for UPE. By 1958, more than one million children were enrolled. The number of primary school teachers rose from 17,000 in 1954 to 27,000 in 1955. About 90 percent of the regional budget was spent on education in 1955. By 1960, over one million, one hundred thousand children were enrolled. This represented more than 90 percent of children of school age in the Western Region. No doubt, the scheme popularized education in the region and scholars regarded it as a breakthrough in popular education not only in Nigeria but in black Africa. The impact of this scheme on primary school enrolment in that region was impressive and immediate as could be observed in the table 2:

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Table 2: School Enrolment in Western Nigeria 1954-1959 Year 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 No. of Primary School 6,407 6,603 6,628 6,670 6,518 No. of Pupils 456,600 908,022 908,022 982,755 1,037,755 1,080,303

Source: Western region of Nigeria: Triennial Report on Education Paper No. 11 of 1959. Ibadan Government Press The scheme however had its problems. Firstly, enrolment projections were grossly underestimated. Records showed that while provisions were made for 170,000 children, 391,895 showed up in the first day of school in January 1955. One major reason for this was that overage and under-age children also turned up for registration. Another reason was that as a result of falsification of population census which was rampart in Nigeria for political reasons, accurate population projection was impossible. The Scheme also gave rise to a noticeable falling standard in primary school education in the region. The Banjo Commission set up six years after the introduction of the scheme to examine the causes of the major problems of the scheme documented among others Large number of untrained teachers Problems of continuity in staffing Too large classes Presence of under-age children Unsatisfactory syllabus
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Inadequate supervision of schools

A BOLD STEP BY EASTERN REGIONAL GOVERNMENT The Eastern Nigerian government, in keeping with the healthy competition of the time, proposed the introduction of the universal primary education on a large scale. It was an eight year free education plan to start from 1957. Educators claimed that it was a hurried plan that lacked adequate preparations. At the initial launching of the Scheme in February 1957, practically all the new schools were staffed by untrained teachers. Besides, building facilities were grossly inadequate as temporary buildings and shelters were used to accommodate the teaming school population. Funding the scheme particularly in the area of paying teachers salaries became a major problem. This coupled with the strong opposition of the Roman Catholic Mission which owned more than sixty percent of the schools became a major force hindering its proper implementation. All the same, the scheme opened the hearts of the people to the need for universal education as the community gave massive support to the scheme. Thus the region remained almost at par with the West in the promotion of education. The Lagos town council which had assumed full responsibility for education in Lagos during the period launched an 8-year UPE scheme in January 1957, two years after the launching of the Western Regions scheme. Lagos UPE though was administered by the Lagos City Council, was actually sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education. Hence Lagos unlike the Western and Eastern Regions did not face financial difficulties. Money was available to build upon the existing sites while teachers were attracted to the urban life of the Federal Capital. The Federal Government Teacher training college at Surulere was expanded, and two voluntary agency teacher training colleges were established in 1958 and 1959.Between 1956 and 1966, the primary school enrolment rose astronomically as could be observed in this Table 3:

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Table 3: Schools in Lagos 1956-1966 Year 1956 1966 No. of Schools 96 129 Enrolment 50, 182 140,000 No. of Teachers 1, 646 4,200

The Northern Regional Government remained silent on Universal Education until the scheme was launched by the Federal Military Government in September 1976. However, during this period, enrolment in primary education in the region rose steadily from 122,055 in 1952 to 518,864 in 1966 Table 4: School Enrolment in Northern Nigeria 1952-1966 Year 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1965 1966 Primary School Enrolment 122,055 142,477 153,686 168,521 185, 484 205, 769 230,000 250,000 282,849 316,264 359,934 410,706 492,510 518,864

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UNIVERSAL EDUCATION IN THE POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION ERA The period 1966-1977 brought about the centralization of education policies. The civil war of 1967-1970 had a devastating effect in the east where schools were destroyed and most households became impoverished. To soften the effects of the war, the federal government embarked on a policy of reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation with the creation of 12 states in 1967, and additional seven states in 1976. Government also engaged in rapid expansion of educational institutions with the objective of improving wider access to education at all levels. This was a period of oil boom in Nigeria. Petroleum accounted for almost 90 per cent of foreign exchange earnings and 85 per cent of total exports {Ekpo et al 2000}. This wealth impacted positively on the educational system in many ways. The Federal government implemented the Udoji Salary Review Commission of 1975. This went a long way to improve the lot of teachers and it also attracted many graduates to the teaching profession. The Federal Government took over the financing of teacher education and launched the Universal Primary Education nationwide in 1976. The aim was to improve the overall school enrolment and to correct the educational imbalance precisely between the southern and northern parts of Nigeria The planning was guided by the principles that the Federal Military Government would solely finance the project while the state governments would act as agents. Preparations were put in place for training of teachers, construction of classrooms while over one billion naira was budgeted for the commencement of the programme. The programme took off with a total enrolment of 3 million pupils into primary school enrolment of about 8.1 million (Taiwo 1981).By 1981, the figure had risen to over fifteen million as shown in table 5.

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Table 5: Enrolment of pupils into Primary Schools in Nigeria 1977-1981 Year 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 No. of Pupils 8,114,307 9,845,838 11,457,772 13,546,312 15,664,424

Source: Federal Ministry of Education Planning Statistics Unit, Lagos. Unfortunately, the economic depression of the 1980s brought a sharp decline in resources allocated to education hence primary education subsequently faced many problems and challenges. Such problems inadequacy of teaching personnel, infrastructure, finance and educational imbalance. The problems of teaching personnel comprised teacher quality, quantity, incentive and self-image and the social image of the teacher. It was evident from the inception of the UPE project that the available teachers could not cope with the staggering numbers of pupils. This factor led to the merging of classes under single teacher thus leading to a disproportionate teacher pupil ratio. The problems that relate to teacher incentive cannot be regarded as less important. The poor salary of teachers led to non-commitment to work as well as attrition from teaching appointment. Most of the trained teachers serving in the rural areas massively drifted to the urban centres in search of more lucrative jobs. The problems of infrastructure were very glaring in most of the states. Acute shortage of classrooms gave rise to two or three shifts school arrangements in the urban centres. Furthermore, sub-standard school buildings were constructed in many states by the in-experienced and inefficient indigenous contractors. To worsen the situation, the Federal Government that initially decided to shoulder the entire UPE expenses soon realized that it was not feasible to do so. The Federal Government therefore involved the states and local governments in financing UPE. Records showed that even though the Federal Government strived to meet her obligations, most of the states and Local governments did not. The problem became more acute when some states and local
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governments diverted educational funds to other areas. All these problems led to a drastic decline in the quality and quantity of UPE in Nigeria by the middle of 1980s and it became necessary to take a revolutionary step in Nigerias aspiration and commitment to meet the target date for attaining education for all by 2000 (which was later shifted to 2015). SHIFT FROM UPE TO UBE The UBE (Universal Basic Education) in Nigeria is a product of its time, Nigeria being a signatory to the 1990 Jomtien Declaration, fully participated in the various deliberations concerning Education for All (EFA). The Federal Government therefore decided to officially launch the Universal Basic Education in the country on September 30, 1999, while the implementation guidelines were published in 2000. The objective of the programme was to lay a solid foundation for a life-long learning for all Nigerians by ensuring the acquisition of appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy, manipulative as well as communicative life skills (FME Guidelines for UBE 2006). The Universal Basic Education became compulsory for all children of school age regardless of sex, religion or states of origin as from Friday May 28, 2004. (Osokoya 2008) At the inception of the UBE programme in 1999, the nations literacy rate was estimated to be 52% (Osokoya 2008). Education statistics for the year showed that only 14.1 million children were enrolled into primary schools out of the 21 million children of school-going age. The transition rate to Junior Secondary School was 43.5%. There were in addition, substantial short coming in Nigerias institutional and personnel capacities for the delivery of a sound educational foundation for all citizens. In particular, there were widespread disparities both in quality and access across the nation. Education statistics further indicated that the available infrastructural facilities, teaching and learning materials as well as qualified teachers were grossly inadequate. The major achievement of UBE is that it has remained in force despite all odds and tumultuous political terrain in Nigeria, The achievement on the ground of increase in enrolment has been well captured in the 2005 MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) report of the Nigerian government briefly cited below:

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 Trends in enrolment from 1999 to 2003 show that on an average enrolment consistently increased over the years for both males and females from 7%, 8%, 11% and 44% in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively. Primary schools rates were, however consistently higher for boys than for girls The efficiency of primary education has improved over the years. The primary-six completion rate increased steadily from 65% in 1998 to 83% in 2001. It however declined in 2002 to shoot up to 94% in 2003. The implementation of the Universal Basic Education in addition, has brought remarkable developments in such aspects as academic, social and physical educational spheres. The content of elementary education in Nigeria witnessed many changes both in variety and intensity since then. It should be remembered that the advent of the National Policy on Education in 1977 and the revisions in 1981, 1998 and 2004 respectively brought with it the need to radically change the school curriculum to meet the new philosophy of Nigerian education. Appropriate curriculum contents were therefore developed for the school system in the recent past aimed at improving universal education to fit into the dynamics of current events and of the immediate future in Nigeria. Of particular importance is the issue of citizenship education which has been infused in to the primary school curriculum. Topics emphasized include Nigerian constitution, tenets of War Against Indiscipline (WAI) Mass Mobilization for Social Justice and Economic Recovery (MAMSER) principles and the high way code. Other topics include home economics, introductory technology, elementary science, population and family life education, drug abuse education and environmental education. Relevant components of these new subjects were infused into the existing school subjects through the process of integrated approach to avoid over-loading of the school curricula. In the area of personnel development, more teachers were trained at the colleges of education and universities in most of the states while the untrained teachers were encouraged to undergo teacher training courses. In addition, the Federal Government has under the Millennium Development Goals Project directed the National Teachers Institute by the Act No. 7 of 1978 to organize programmes for upgrading and updating practising teachers. Many workshops had

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been organized on Innovative techniques of teaching and Improvisation of Instructional materials in the six geo-political zones since the implementation of UBE. Furthermore the Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) was fixed as the minimum teaching qualification in Nigeria. In the bid to encourage appropriate textual materials with illustrations taken from the locality, indigenous authors were sensitized and encouraged to produce instructional materials by the Federal Government through the establishment of Book Development Centre based at the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). Another major academic landmark was the introduction of the Continuous Assessment practice into the UBE Scheme. The National Policy of Education laid strong emphasis on the use of continuous assessment practice at the various levels of Educational system, in preference to the former practice of single terminal examinations. Certification at the primary school level is now based on continuous assessment rather than on a primary school leaving certificate examination. Continuous assessment is viewed as the method of finding out what the students have gained from learning activities in terms of knowledge, thinking and reasoning, character development and industry. It takes into account the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of the pupils. In the cognitive domain, teachers assess the pupils knowledge of previously learned materials, his understanding and the application of materials in solving problems. They also attempt to evaluate the extent to which the child can make inference and assumptions from the learned materials. Pupils feelings, attitudes, emotions and other social behaviour are assessed in the affective domain while the interest is to evaluate the pupils manipulative skills in the psychomotor domain. Manipulative skills simply refer to the way the child makes proper use of his limbs and body and the degree of coordination involved in skilled activities. The use of continuous assessment practice gives room for teachers to combine the scores attained by each pupil in the class assignments, homework, weekly tests, examinations and various other sources applied during class instructions to obtain the overall score for a given period. With such overall scores, it would be possible to diagnose problems in the course of instruction. Teachers would therefore be in a better position to help their pupils overcome their individual problems. It also gives room for teachers to assess their own performance and

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effectiveness on the job. This will no doubt lead to possible improvement or innovations of teaching techniques. Furthermore, continuous assessment gives teachers the opportunity to make a critical study of the character, temperament, interest, attitude and adjustment of the pupils, which would form part of the final assessment of the pupils. Such assessment and information will no doubt lead to better understanding of the pupils and with the aid of proper guidance and counseling, students would be able to overcome their difficulties and improve their performance. The Universal Basic Education in Nigeria is also geared towards improving the socio-economic condition of the indigenous rural population in Nigeria. Such rural population include the nomadic pastoralists and the artisan migrant fishermen who are difficult to educate as evident by their participation in existing formal and non-formal education programmes which were abysmally low, as their literacy rate ranged between 0.2% and 2.0% (Tahir 2003). In the bid to provide universal education to all Nigerian citizens, the Federal Government launched the Nomadic Education Scheme on 4th November 1986. As a follow up to this, by Decree no. 41 of December 1989, the Federal Government established the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) and charged it with the responsibility of implementing the Nomadic Education in the country. The commission on Nomadic Education had four departments namely: Planning, Research and Statistics Personnel Management Monitoring and Evaluation Finance and Supplier.

In 1996, the commission had 42 staff members, 54 field officers in eighteen different units through which they relate very closely with three University in Nigeria namely: Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto for Curriculum Development, Universities of Maiduguri for Education Training and Outreach and University of Jos for Research and Evaluation (Osokoya 2005). In addition, the commission worked through the states Nomadic Education

Units/Agencies/Directorates which were either affiliated to the participation state ministries of

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Education or State Primary Education Boards in Implementing Nomadic Education programmes at the state, local government and community levels. Student-teacher ratio increased annually from 1999 to 2005 but became more pronounced between 2003 and 2005. This suggests that more nomads are interested in education but teachers are lacking. Physical development refers to the development of the physical and spatial enablers of teaching and learning. It includes the refurbishing of classrooms, libraries, laboratories, workshops, playfields, school farms and gardens as well as provisions for pupils daily use as electricity, water and sanitation. At the inception of the UBE programme in 1999, it was realized that such basic school level infrastructure were not only in short supply, but that the available ones had deterioted. Since the inception of the UBE programme, the Federal Government had been involved in the construction of additional classrooms, offices, stores and toilets in the public primary schools in the various states. Educational researchers however still claim that there is inadequacy in the number of primary school to support full enrolment of primary-school-age children [Okebukola (2008), Nwagwu (2010)]. Worse hit are the urban areas with dense population of children resulting in high pupil/teacher ratio. The shortage of schools and especially classrooms manifests in children receiving instruction under harsh conditions. Furthermore, a major factor in the success of UBE scheme is the teacher. There is a plethora of evidence (UNESCO, 2007) suggesting that teacher quantity, quality and motivation exert noteworthy effects on a host of school variables. These include enrolment, participation and achievement of pupils. The shortfall in teacher number translates to high pupil-teacher ratio and severe stress on teachers on ground. Inadequacy in the number of teachers for the UBE programme could therefore account for the declining quality of the products. In addition, the existing model and practice of teacher education with particular reference to the use of outreach and sandwich centres has weak pedagogical bases and frameworks. Evidences abound that the input into many of these part-time programmes is of doubtful quality. Irregularity in the payment of teachers salaries that was a distinctive feature of the 90s is fast fading. Notwithstanding this boost, teachers in Nigeria remain poorly motivated.
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TOWARDS A PATH FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY OF UBE IN NIGERIA The path for sustainability of UBE in Nigeria lies in avoiding the mistakes of the past universal education and to provide solutions to the current challenges of the project. The following suggestions are therefore made to build sustainability safeguards into the UBE scheme. Political Stability and the social mobilization: Nigeria seems to be steadily returning to political stability and economic sufficiency since the new civilian dispensation. Its debt burden has been considerably reduced while its income has been considerably enhanced by the hikes in petroleum prices. This has given rise to some on-going social reforms in many aspects of our national life. Maintenance of political stability should be regarded as a pre-condition for success to be achieved in future UBE. In addition to this, Nigerian Politicians should endeavour to build a strong political support for the UBE programme. Governments at all levels, federal state and local, should provide adequate social mobilization to ensure a satisfactory level of popular will for the programme. Universalizing education should be fully accepted by Nigerian populace and adequately supported by all. In order to achieve a strong civil society involvement UBE should be highly decentralized for participatory management, working in the principles of popular will and peoples ownership. (Obanya 2009) True Federalism Challenge: It should be borne in mind that the constitutional requirement for the governance of education in Nigeria confers the control of primary education to local governments. The UBE scheme in the country is a federally-led intervention. This had led to conflicts of power struggle between the local and state governments as the state governmnets stranglehold on local governments is total. It is therefore necessary that the management and policy structure of UBE be streamlined to make for greater harmonization at the three tiers of government. True federalism should be allowed to take root in the planning and delivery of UBE. To this end, there is the need to restore the key role of the local government in delivering basic education giving them the technical and financial empowerment to take on the responsibility.

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Adequate Funding: Adequate funding and the judicious use of available fund had been seen as a major factor for the failures of the previous universal education schemes. Future success and sustainability of the UBE scheme lies in improved fund management, particularly on grounds of transparency and accountability. UBE should be correctly costed and resourced. Furthermore, there should be timely release of funds and implementers must endeavour to use the funds for the purpose for which they are intended. Data Problem: A major problem faced by educational planners in Nigeria had been the inability to obtain correct and up-to-date statistical data needed for planning. A population census in Nigeria has always been a politically charged issue. This has continually made projections based on population figures unrealistic. Nigerians need to rethink and change their attitude towards record keeping and imitate the developed countries in using accurate facts and figures for planning and decision making. To this end, government should ensure accurate data collection through Education Management Information System (EMIS)

CONCLUSION Universalisation of education at the primary level is not new to Nigeria. In the mid-fifties, the two regional governments in the east and west of the country embarked on Universal Primary Education Scheme. The Western Region made a better success of it than the Eastern Region. Both regional attempts however could not be sustained. Explosion in enrolment coupled with poor economic environment constituted huge constraints to such a laudable programme. The first national attempt at providing universal access to primary education was in 1976. This, in spite of better economic climate at its inception, was also not sustained. Many reasons were attributed to its non-sustainability. It however succeeded in boosting enrolment in primary education. This second effort at introducing Universal Basic Education nationwide could not have come at a better time. With the democratic dispensation, there is evidence to show political

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commitment and determination to succeed. We however need to take some pre-cautions including Taking appropriate steps to ensure that the various agencies controlling the policy directions on the programme are operating in harmony, ensuring that all resources are brought together for a common cause, which is the promotion of basic education Our emphasis should not be limited to physical access issues; rather we should focus more on equity, relevance, quality and efficiency challenges. Social-will i.e. readiness of the populace to be carried along in the UBE process, as a result of governments readiness to carry the people along. Sustainable funding Systematic monitoring Poor curriculum delivery Teacher quality and quantity

REFERENCES Adewunmi, J.A. (2001): Analysis of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and the lessons for

the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Paper Presented at the UBE Local Level Policy Dialogue at Ilorin. Ajayi, T. (2001): 1. Fafunwa, A.B. (1974): History of Education in Nigeria. London, George Allen Unwin Federal Ministry of Education (2000): Government Printers.
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Effective Planning Strategies for UBE Programme in UBE Forum Vol. 1 No

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Federal Ministry of Education (2001): Federal Ministry of Education (2001): Basic Education in Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Education (2003): Nigeria Abuja Government Press. Federal Ministry of Education (2004): Government Press. Obanya PAI (2007): Obanya PAI (2009):

UBE Forum. Journal of Basic Education in Nigeria. Universal Basic Education Digest. A newsletter of

A Handbook of Information of Basic Education in

National Policy on Education (Revised) Lagos,

Thinking and Talking Education. Ibadan, Evans Brothers Nigeria Ltd. Dreaming Living and Doing Education. Ibadan Educational Research and

Study Group. Institute of Education University of Ibadan. Obanya, PAI. (2002): Revitalizing Education in Africa. Ibadan Stirling-Horden Publishers Nig Ltd. Okoro, D.C.U. (2000): Basic Education Emerging Issues, Challenges and Constraints in UNESCO Abuja Office. The State of Education in Nigeria. Osokoya, I.O (2010): History and Policy of Nigeria Education in World Perspective Ibadan AMD Publishers. Osokoya, I.O. (2004): 6-3-3-4 Education in Nigeria, History, Strategies, Issues and Problems. Ibadan, Laurel Educational Publishers Ltd. Tahir, GO. (2001): Federal Government Intervention in Universal Basic Education. UBE

FORUM. A Journal of Basic Education in Nigeria. Yoloye, E.A. (Ed) (2004): Ltd. Yoloye, E.A. (Ed) (2010): Press Ltd. Vision 20-2020 The Educational Imperatives. Lagos, The CIBN Burning Issues in Nigerian Education. Ibadan Wemilore Press Nig.

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