UBEC Orders Shift To Well-equipped Public Schools

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has ordered a shift from isolated classroom construction to a whole school approach, where public schools must be equipped with essential facilities including classrooms, toilets, water, electricity, fencing, security and digital learning infrastructure.

The executive secretary of UBEC, Dr Aisha Garba, disclosed this in Abuja yesterday, during an inspection of schools in and around Abuja, where renovated facilities and digital learning centres were commissioned.

Garba said the commission had renovated more than 4,000 classrooms, while over 200 schools had benefitted from the whole-school approach under its new minimum standards.

She said the reform was designed to ensure that government interventions addressed the overall needs of schools instead of concentrating on isolated projects.

“Our mandate is that all children, regardless of where they are, should be in school. We should also make sure that schools are in a conducive environment for learning.

“This has been one of our key mandates, and since the coming of this administration, we have taken that directive seriously. We have undertaken different reforms within the education sector,” she said.

According to her, the new minimum standards require governments at the federal, state and local levels to assess the needs of an entire school before carrying out renovation or construction projects.

“We are no longer going to renovate a window, or put in one chair and leave hundreds of students sitting on the floor. Today, our renovation based on the minimum standards is called the Whole School Approach. This means any school that government is going to renovate, whether it is federal, state or local government, must follow that minimum standard.”

She said the approach required authorities to identify and address all gaps within a school, including classrooms, furniture, toilets, water supply, electricity and security.

“All the schools that do not have fencing must now be fenced. All the schools that do not have water must now have a borehole. All the schools that do not have light must now come with solar,” Garba said.

On digital learning, the UBEC boss said it had commissioned 74 Digital Learning Centres during the inspection exercise, while more than 2,000 such centres had been established under the current administration.

During the inspection tour, the UBEC team visited the Primary and Government Junior Secondary School, Nyanya Hausawa, in the Abuja Municipal Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, and Model Girls’ Junior Secondary School, Aco Estate, Lugbe.

Earlier, the Director of Physical Planning, UBEC, Arch Nura Ibrahim, said the Nyanya Hausawa school was located in a remote, forested area and had previously suffered serious infrastructural deficiencies.

He said a condition assessment was conducted before the intervention to determine the extent of rehabilitation required.

“The first thing we observed was that some of the buildings were completely defective and had lost their structural integrity. Some of the classrooms were unsafe. The beams were cracked and some parts had already fallen apart,” Ibrahim said.

The principal of the school, Gideon Isah, described the commissioning of the renovated facilities as a historic occasion, recalling the poor condition of the school before the intervention.

He said some pupils had previously been forced to sit on bare floors because there were not enough chairs.