Augustine Okezie
The federal government has re-introduced school feeding programmes for primary school as a component of the UBE programme to boost enrolment and retention in public schools across the country.
Supervising Minister of Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, disclosed this recently at the opening ceremony of the 12th quarterly meeting of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Management with Executive Chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Commission (SUBEB) in Owerri, Imo state.
Wike, who was represented by Dr. Olu Ayewoh, assured that government would not rest on its oars as “it strives to see that basic education is given the desired attention.”
He said the transformation agenda of Mr. President in the provision of basic education to the disadvantaged segment of the society, such as the Almajiri, the girl-child, and the economically active of school age that were forced out of school by poverty and lack of proper parental care, would be pursued to a logical conclusion.
He urged states that were not doing well to brace up, especially those that had not been able to access their matching grants to do so in order to complement the efforts of the federal government in the delivery of basic education.
In his speech, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Alhaji Dr. Dikko Suleiman, said the theme of the meeting “Access and Retention in Basic Education: The Challenge of Out of School Children in Nigeria” was timely and pertinent as the federal government is investing heavily to ensure that the out of school syndrome was a thing of the past in the country through the provision of access and equity in basic education.
On matching grants till date, The Executive Secretary said from 2005 to 14th April 2014, The Commission received N247, 34 billion as matching grants and disbursed N198.54 billion to states and FCT, representing 80.27 per cent access.
Suleiman said, as at April 14, 2014, the sum of N48.79 billion remained un-accessed.
He said the 2014 provisional allocation of UBE matching grants to each state and FCT is N952.297, 297.30, stressing that the Commission had received 1st quarter, 2014 Matching Grants allocation of N8, 808.750, 000.00 which translates to N228.074.324.33 per state.
He said state and the FCT can access 1st quarter, 2014 allocation of N238, 074.324.33 by providing equivalent as counterpart fund and meeting other draw down conditions.
