Our Correspondent 
…as many states claim payment of counterpart funds
- 34 states yet to access 2024 UBE matching grant –Commission
- We’ve remitted our counterpart funds –States
MATCHING GRANT Contrary to the claim by Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that 34 states out of 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are yet to access the 2024 matching grant, some states have cited non-approval of their Action Plans by the Commission as reason for the delay
Given the worrisome level of rot and slow pace of development of the basic education sub-sector, despite the huge resources set aside yearly by the Federal Government to transform and fix the sector, there is growing concern among stakeholders.
To transform the sector, the Federal Government through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) provides matching grants for state governments, under the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme to reposition primary and junior secondary schools for quality delivery.
But to access the funds for infrastructure development, provision of facilities and other basic school needs, as well as recruitment of qualified teachers, state governments are required to provide their counterpart fund. Unfortunately, most state governments have defaulted in regular remittance of their counterpart funds and for seamless access of the grant.
Sadly, the basic education level is today in comatose due to various challenges of dearth of needed infrastructure and facilities confronting the system due to the inaction of the state governments.
The problems, which range from dilapidated and decayed facilities, inadequate classrooms, lack of modern facilities and instructional materials, classroom congestion, acute shortage of qualified teachers, to lack of toilet facilities and the general poor learning environment, have taken a toll on the quality delivery in the system.
Due to this, several primary school children sit under trees and sheds, and dust infested floors to learn in schools for lack of sufficient desks and benches owing to apparent neglect and lack of the right political will on the part of the state governments to properly fund the sub-sector.
Subsequently, these challenges have made learning inaccessible, uninteresting and unattractive to school-age children and learners. Resulting from the ineptitude of some state governments, and coupled with the challenges of insecurity in some parts of the country, the crisis of out-of-school children has heightened, especially at the basic education level.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in its damning report currently pegged the figure of out-of-school children in Nigeria at over 18.3 million children. The organisation in its report also said that one out of four children (25 per cent) in Nigeria is out of school, while 75 per cent of Nigerian children have not developed functional learning skills, which are critical building blocks for advanced knowledge and skills, which is as a result of lack of deliberate attention to the sector.
UBEC
UBEC, the agency supervising the sector and responsible for disbursement of the matching grant, between 2020 and 2024, had revealed that a total of N135,540,905,308,92 matching grant has remained unaccessed by the states, a development it regretted has fueled the palpable decay and deplorable state of basic school system in the country.
The Executive Secretary, Hamid Bobboyi, had penultimate week expressed displeasure that 34 states out of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are yet to access the 2024 UBE matching grant.
According to him, only Katsina and Kaduna are the only two states that have been able to access their 2024 UBE matching grants, even as the Executive Secretary stated that the irregularity in accessing the UBE matching grants by states has constituted monumental development challenges at the primary and junior secondary school education level.
Bobboyi, who recalled that for the 2020 UBE matching grant, 34 states and the FCT have accessed the grant, he said two states (Abia and Ogun) were yet to access it; while for 2021 grant, 33 states and the FCT accessed the fund, leaving Abia, Imo and Ogun states which are yet to do so.
Giving more statistics, he noted that in 2022 allocations, only 29 states and the FCT accessed the grants with Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Ebonyi, Imo, Ogun, and Oyo states yet to access the funds; and for 2023 matching grant, only 25 states accessed the funds for the first to fourth quarters.”
According to Bobboyi, N263.04 billion and N103.29 billion, representing two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) were allocated to the UBEC under the 2023 and 2024 Appropriation Acts, respectively. Out of these figures, he explained that N103.29 billion was fully released for 2023 matching grant, while N219.20 billion had also been released for 2024, representing 83.33 per cent of the year’s allocation.
The state said the counterpart fund had been paid by government three months ago
States
In view of the worrisome rise in the figure of out-of-school children and the level of rot in the school, stakeholder insisted that it should however be expected that state governors, would engaged the window of opportunity by regularly paying their counterpart funds to enable them to access UBEC’s matching grants, that has remained untapped year-in-year-out at the Commission.
But, piqued by the UBEC’s claim, education pundits including parents, teachers and other stakeholders have condemned the attitude of state governors towards basic education development in the country.
They, however, blamed the poor state of basic education level on the state governments, which they accused of deliberately neglecting that level of education, despite the humongous resources made available by the Federal Government.
Sadly, they specifically bemoaned the state governments’ failure to access the UBEC grant, which has gradually retarded the growth of basic education level given the attendant crises of inadequate and dilapidated infrastructure, decayed facilities and dearth of learning materials, among other challenges.
In their reactions to the UBEC claim that only Katsina and Kaduna states have accessed the 2024 UBE matching grant, some state governments vehemently faulted the claim.
They claimed that they had already paid their counterpart funds, but only expecting the Commission to release their grants; while some other states through the State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB) agreed with UBEC’s position but promised to do the needful.
In the just released data by UBEC, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has about N1.39 billion unaccessed funds with the Commission. Although the FCT said it had accessed both the 2021 and 2022 matching grants, it however failed to access the 2023 and 2024 matching grants, respectively.
Findings by New Telegraph indicated that the failure of the FCT management, like many other states, to access the UBEC grant has retarded basic education development across the states. Worried over the poor learning environment in many schools in the FCT, some teachers have raised concerns over the dearth of infrastructure and other school needs.
A visit to some basic education schools in FCT, including Government Junior Secondary School in Kubwa; LEA Primary School, Kubwa; Junior Secondary School, Gwagwalada; LEA Primary School, Bwari all within the FCT, it is the same story of woe. The major challenges are overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated buildings, gross inadequate school furniture, and shortage of teachers, among others.
More worrisome is that many pupils have no desks and benches to sit, and hence they sit on the bare floor to learn. Lamenting their plight, a teacher, who craves anonymity, noted that for lack of facilities, some students usually stand during classes, saying that lack of a conducive learning environment has great adverse effects on the pupils’ ability to comprehend and assimilate properly.
To the teachers, there are certain gaps in the school system that need to be addressed in order to ensure a seamless and rapid learning outcomes, even as the teacher added: “When you have some pupils and students sitting on the floor or hanging on the classroom windows, or standing to attend lessons, then there is a big problem in the system. How do we expect such children to learn in such an environment? “The classes are overcrowded, staff rooms are also overcrowded.
We are just managing what we have and making sure everybody goes home happy,” the teachers said. The teachers also urged the management of the FCT-UBEB to urgently construct more classrooms and offices, as well as provide adequate learning materials for the students. Despite consistent pleas from schools to the FCT Administration/government, the teachers bemoaned what they described as a huge infrastructural deficit which is making learning uninteresting for students.
Contrary to the position of some states on UBEC’s claim, the Chairman of the Abia State Universal Basic Education Board (ASUBEB), Dr Lydia Onuoha confirmed that the state has not accessed the grant for five years, but that the outstanding counterpart funds have been paid.
She, however, cited the non constitution of the Board, which is only six months old as the reason for the delay, saying the issue of a delay to access the state’s matching grant has been resolved. Onuoha said: “Abia State counterpart fund has been paid. I have presented our work/ action plan to UBEC and they have accepted it. Any moment from now, they will pay the Abia SUBEB grant.
“Yes, for the last five years the state has not accessed the UBEC matching grant because the state Board had not been inaugurated and therefore could not pay its counterpart fund. But as I speak to you, Governor Alex Otti has paid the state counterpart fund of over N4 billion to the UBEC account.”
Though basic education is free in Abia State, the effects of lack of accessing the grant on infrastructure, facilities and teachers’ welfare have been obvious as most primary schools, even those in the urban centres are faced with lack of teachers’ furniture.
Besides, teachers’ welfare has been a knotty issue, as teachers’ salary scale, for instance, among other welfare packages, is not being paid; while the subsisting shortage of teachers across the schools has not been addressed.
Also, in Niger State, the State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB) said the government did not refuse to access the matching grant, but that it was still in the process of accessing the funds.
Meanwhile, the Secretary to the Board, Aminu Aliyu Wushishi, told our Correspondent on phone that the state has not accessed the funds yet because of the relatively new leadership of the Board.
He stated: “We did not refuse to access the funds. It is just that we have not been able to access it, but we are already processing it. You should realise that it is not something that we just pick.
There are a lot of things we have to follow, such as signing documents; we have to apply and provide certain papers. And, that is what we are currently doing. “We are still doing the paperwork and it is still in process. It took this long because it is a new Board management.”
A teacher, who spoke with New Telegraph on condition of anonymity, recalled that for the past eight months, his school has been facing the crisis of lack of desks and other learning facilities and materials. “We expected the renovation of the school to commence as we resume for a new academic session, but till this moment nothing has happened.
“Also, we are short of teachers, but what has helped us in the past few years was the N-POWER programme which introduced the immediate past Federal Government administration, which recruited teachers that worked with us for the said period, but after the programme, we are now short of teachers.
Another teacher told New Telegraph that many of the schools are facing the problem of lack of basic infrastructure and facilities, especially toilets for pupils and teachers. Meanwhile, the Ondo State government has also faulted UBEC Executive Secretary over his claim on payment of the state’s counterpart fund.
The Chairman of SUBEB, Victor Olabimtan, who confirmed payment of the state’s counterpart fund, however, dissociated the state from the claim of nonremittance of counterpart funds to the Commission. The state said the counterpart fund had been paid by the government three months ago.
Speaking with New Telegraph, the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) further explained that despite the remittance of the state’s counterpart fund, the Action Plan for the implementation of the projects has not been approved by the Commission.
The SUBEB’s Director of Media, Prince Bolu Ajijo noted that until the approval, the state government cannot advertise for the execution of the projects, and until that is done the fund would not be released.
He said: “What we approved here is the matching grants. The budget was approved about two months ago before the state governorship election. It is the policy of the state government that once money is approved, it is taken to the bank where it will be disbursed.
“If you look at the UBEC website, you will discover that no state beats Ondo State in terms of funding of primary school projects. We don’t have issues with that. We usually come first if you look at the UBEC website; Ondo State usually comes first in the South-West geo-political zone.
The government has been paying counterpart funding for the last seven years. “It was the administration of Dr Olusegun Mimiko that did not pay the state counterpart fund for a long time.
But, when the administration of Late Oluwarotimi Akerdolu came on board, the administration paid three years of backlog and since then, we have been paying regularly.
“The procedure is that when approved, it will go to Abuja. And we have submitted our Action Plan to the Commission in Abuja. It is after this has been approved by UBEC that we will commence its implementation.”
Others
Similarly, the Adamawa State government said that in compliance with the provision of the UBE Acts, the state has accessed its UBEC matching grants in full till date, contrary to the agency’s claim.
A senior official of the government, who preferred anonymity, said the state must be among the states that have accessed their grants. Also, a source at the State Universal Basic Education Board, however, confirmed to New Telegraph that “Adamawa State has accessed the UBE matching grant as the state has regularly been paying its counterpart funds.”
A teacher at Capital Secondary School, Jimeta, noted that provision of facilities and learning infrastructure had never been a challenge in the system, but rather the non-engagement of teachers has been the problem.
Amid growing public outcry over inadequate infrastructure confronting basic education schools across basic schools in Nasarawa State, stakeholders stated that it is no longer a conjecture that Nasarawa is among the 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory that have not accessed their matching grant for 2024.
Though the state SUBEB chairman did not respond to calls and text messages put to his cellphone to comment on the issue, a visit to some basic education schools indicated that many of the schools are in bad shape with dilapidated structures, old buildings with blown off roofs, lack of windows and other instructional materials.
At LGA Primary School, Ombi Anzaku, a suburb of Lafia, the state capital, the school buildings have collapsed and pupils put in a makeshift shed improvised by the teachers and community members to receive lessons.
More shocking is that in several public primary schools in some communities in the state, pupils still sit under trees or makeshift structures to learn for lack of adequate school buildings, while many schools have neither teachers nor instructional materials for effective teaching and learning.
Some teachers also complained of inadequate school infrastructure in many public primary schools in the state, citing a situation where two classes are merged in one classroom resulting in overcrowding and a large class for a teacher to teach effectively.
