House Passes Second Reading Of Bill To Double UBEC Funding From 2% To 4%

A Bill for the amendment of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act to increase its funding from the consolidated revenue from 2 percent to 4 per cent has passed the second reading in the House of Representatives.

Chairman, House Committee on Basic Education and Services, Bako Useni, disclosed this during the committee’s oversight function at the Digital Resource Center built by UBEC in Abuja on Thursday.

The centre was built for the training of teachers on digital education in Nigeria.

Bako said the 10th National Assembly saw the need to increase financial resources to the basic education sub-sector for set objectives to be further met.

Sponsored by Muktar Shagaya from Kwara, the proposed legislation aims to amend the UBE Act, 2004, to increase the share of the consolidated revenue fund allocated for UBEC, from two percent to four percent.

This was read for the first time on the floor of the house on November 28, 2023.

Useni said: “The amendment bill which passed the second reading Yesterday (Wednesday) when concluded will make UBEC stronger.

“Since UBEC was established in 2004 to date, a lot has been achieved. However, the House felt that if UBEC is motivated with more funding, it will go a long way in achieving more of what it has achieved.

“It was on this basis that one of us, Honourable Mukhtar Shagaya proposed an amendment to the UBEC Act to increase funding to UBEC from 2% to 4%/from the consolidated revenue fund.”

He said the committee was happy with the digital resource center built by UBEC, as it has always been the desire of the committee to ensure that newer dimensions are introduced to the basic education sector in Nigeria.

“It is going to bring a new approach to basic education in Nigeria. It is going to improve teachers’ training and content,” he said

According to him, the committee will ensure continuous oversight function for the sustainability of the Digital Resource Centre like all others under its mandate.

He said: “We have also assured the center of our collaboration and support through budget allocations and oversight functions to make sure that whatever funds that are provided are used for the betterment of Nigerians.

“We will continue to visit to monitor the kind of training that is being given to our teachers and other resource persons because it is a center for Nigeria to develop its education sector.”

Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hameed Bobboyi said the center was an effort to move digital education in Nigeria to the next level, stressing that it was gladdening to have taken the House Committee members on a tour of the facilities of the center, which includes: the digital Museum, Library, Artificial Intelligence Center, the Studio, Micro-labs, lecture halls, accommodation among others.

He said: “It is fruitful to bring the Honourable members to come and see what UBEC is doing in the area of digital education in the Basic education sub-sector of the country.

“The facility will ensure that our teachers are trained on the new pedagogy. We have brought in many teachers, school administrators, and quality assurance officers.

“For them to understand what is digital learning and also to prepare them to be real participants and not just copycats in the class, where they can develop their digital resources and also take advantage of digital resources already on the ground.

“This is an experiment that we have started and believe that it will be a game changer in our basic education sub-sector.”

He said the digital resource center would coordinate the Smart Schools spread across the country to aid digital learning in the nation, adding that it would also be used to reshape those in the senior/management cadre of the basic education sub-sector.

The National Coordinator of the Centre, Prof Bashir Galandanci said the Digital Resource Center was part of the effort of the commission to transform the agency into a digital era.