UBEC Begins 10-Year Basic Education Roadmap Implementation in October By Beauty Akporido Aroh

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has announced plans to commence the implementation of its 10-year Universal Basic Education Roadmap, 2026–2035, in the first week of October.

UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Aisha Garba, disclosed this in Abuja on Monday at a two-day consultative workshop involving chairmen of the 36 State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and directors of the Commission.

Garba said the new roadmap marked a shift from the implementation of isolated infrastructure projects to a comprehensive, “whole school approach” designed to address the full range of needs required to make schools functional and conducive to learning.

She also unveiled the Basic Education Action Plan Management System (BEAPMS), a digital platform developed to strengthen planning, transparency and monitoring of basic education interventions nationwide.

According to her, the new approach would require states to identify and address the critical gaps in individual schools before their action plans could be approved by UBEC.

“For any state to do renovation, you have to do a whole school approach. A whole school approach means, you take a school and you look at all the gaps,” she said.

Garba explained that the reform was intended to end the practice of providing disconnected interventions, such as constructing a few classrooms or supplying furniture without addressing other essential requirements.

“You don’t just put in a furniture or you drop two blocks of classrooms and you leave because you want to give out awards. No, you have to take in all the comprehensive needs of that particular school,” she said.

She said where a school required fencing, toilets, furniture, computers or other facilities, such needs would be incorporated into the intervention plan.

Similarly, additional classrooms would be planned alongside adequate toilet facilities and other requirements based on projected enrolment.

The UBEC boss also announced a revision of the matching grant formula to give states greater flexibility to deploy UBEC funds according to their specific education needs.

She said the previous formula had placed considerable emphasis on new infrastructure, even as some states increasingly required funding for the rehabilitation, maintenance and improvement of existing schools.

“The new formula allows each state to look at their own needs. If their needs on the ground is furniture, if their needs on the ground is renovating all schools to ensure that our schools now have fencing, have computers, have furniture, then they are allowed to do that,” she said.

According to her, the revised framework could also accommodate interventions such as enrolment materials and additional teachers where states identify increased enrolment as a priority.

On BEAPMS, Garba said the digital platform would enable greater public participation in monitoring projects implemented under the 10-year roadmap.

She said parents and members of host communities would be able to access information on projects, funding and interventions being delivered in schools.

“This will also allow us to bring in the community to be part of the monitoring of the projects that we do on the ground,” she said.

Garba added that information on the amount of UBEC funding accessed by each state would be published on the Commission’s website, alongside details of projects being implemented.

“With that, community can hold us accountable to the money we have accessed from UBEC, and then also the projects we’re doing on the ground, as well as the quality of projects we’re doing,” she said.

She disclosed that BEAPMS had been under development for more than a month, adding that SUBEB chairmen had been fully onboarded ahead of the commencement of full implementation in October.

Also speaking, the Dean of SUBEB Chairmen, Prof. Shehu Adaramaja, said the consultation was critical to establishing a common direction for basic education delivery across the country over the next decade.

He said the workshop would focus on strategies and initiatives aimed at expanding access, improving quality and strengthening education management systems.

“In the next two days, we’ll pay attention to all the strategies and the initiatives toward the development of a roadmap for the next 10 years on how to provide access, provide quality service, and of course, strengthen our systems in line with our new basic education management system,” he said.

Adaramaja, who is also Chairman of the Kwara State SUBEB, said the workshop was designed as a hands-on exercise, with directors of research and statistics expected to participate actively in developing the framework that would guide state basic education action plans.

He noted that UBEC’s intervention mandate had expanded beyond physical infrastructure to include other components aimed at strengthening the overall delivery of basic education services.

Earlier, UBEC Director of Physical Planning, Arc. Nura Ibrahim, said the consultative exercise would provide an opportunity for stakeholders to review and validate the proposed 10-year roadmap, drawing on their technical expertise and experience in implementing basic education programmes across the states.