UBEC to begin 10-year basic education roadmap in October

“You don’t just put in 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.

According to Garba, where a school requires fencing, toilets, furniture, computers or additional classrooms, such needs would be considered as part of the intervention plan.

She added that where increased enrolment creates the need for additional classrooms, the corresponding requirements for toilets and other supporting facilities would also be taken into account.

UBEC revises matching grant formula

Garba also announced a revision of UBEC’s matching grant formula to give states greater flexibility in deploying intervention funds according to their specific education needs.

She said the previous arrangement placed considerable emphasis on new infrastructure, even in states where the more pressing needs involved the renovation, maintenance and improvement of existing schools.

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

The revised framework could also accommodate other priorities identified by states, including enrolment materials and additional teachers where increased enrolment has placed pressure on existing facilities.

Garba said the revised formula was intended to recognise that the challenges facing basic education differ across states and that funding interventions should reflect those differences.

New digital platform to track UBEC projects

The commission said BEAPMS would provide a digital mechanism for improving the planning and monitoring of basic education interventions while giving communities a greater role in tracking projects.

Garba said information on the amount of money accessed by individual states would be published on UBEC’s website alongside details of the projects being implemented.

“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.

She added that the platform would enable parents and community members to scrutinise how UBEC funds were being used and assess the quality of projects implemented in their schools.

“With that, the 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,” Garba said.

According to her, BEAPMS had been under development for more than a month, while the chairmen of the various SUBEBs had been onboarded ahead of its full implementation.

States to develop plans for next decade

Also speaking at the workshop, the Dean of SUBEB Chairmen, Professor Shehu Adaramaja, said the consultation would help establish a common direction for basic education development across the country over the next decade.

Adaramaja, who is also Chairman of the Kwara State SUBEB, said stakeholders would focus on strategies for expanding access, improving quality and strengthening basic 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.

He explained that the workshop was structured as a hands-on exercise, with directors of research and statistics expected to contribute to frameworks that would guide the respective states’ basic education action plans.

Adaramaja also noted that UBEC’s intervention mandate had expanded beyond physical infrastructure to include other components considered necessary for improving basic education delivery.

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

The implementation of the 2026–2035 roadmap is expected to mark a shift in how UBEC interventions are planned, with greater emphasis on comprehensive school needs, state-specific priorities, digital monitoring and community participation.