The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has said about 50 per cent of schools in Nigeria lack basic furniture. Executive Secretary of the commission, Hamid Bobboyi, who said this in Abuja, regretted that basic education “pupils sit on the floor to take lessons.”
According to him, emerging constraints in basic education delivery in the country might necessitate an increase in the consolidated revenue funds from the current two per cent to four per cent.
He buttressed his position for an increase in funding to the security challenges bedevilling the country, insisting that the rising students population also poses the urgent need for teaching facilities.
Bobboyi said this at a one-day Civil Society Organisations CSO-Legislative Round Table Meeting where some National and State Houses of Assembly members were present. He argued that while the children of the rich who are merely 20 per cent of the population can afford to garner resources for private schools, the less privileged constituting 80 per cent are stuck with the public institutions.
The UBEC boss equally tasked relevant civil society organisations, the media and other critical stakeholders not to shy away from rendering assistance to the government in bridging observed gaps in learning and teaching processes, especially at the basic school level.
