Twenty-four states across the country are currently battling with a deficit of 260,551 classrooms in their public primary schools, The PUNCH has learnt.
The figure was contained in the Universal Basic Education Commission’s data obtained by our correspondent on Thursday.
UBEC is a Federal Government agency saddled with the responsibility of coordinating all aspects of implementing the Universal Basic Education Programme, which was introduced in 1999 as a reform programme aimed at providing greater access to and ensuring the quality of basic education throughout Nigeria.
In the document obtained by UBEC on Thursday, the commission highlighted some factors responsible for the development and the increasing number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
It read, “On the demand side, at least five major reasons can be named. First, there is a negative perception of the importance and value of education as the quality is stagnating. The low quality is caused by the low qualification of teachers.
“Second, the culture of learning is granted low status, which limits the chances of children accessing basic education, especially for girls in rural areas due to early marriage.
“Third, poverty and low rural incomes, exemplified by national economic indicators, often limit parents’ capacity to support the education of their children. Fourth, the need to support family well-being encourages child labour. This negatively affects parents’ willingness to encourage their children’s enrolment in basic education.
“Fifth, due to opportunity cost, low-income households are constrained to prioritising their children’s engagement in menial duties as against basic education acquisition.”
UBEC listed the states suffering from a deficit of classrooms in public primary schools as follows: Kano has a 52,176 deficit, Katsina has 33,241, Akwa-Ibom has 22,204, Kaduna has 22,138, Oyo has 17,914, and Imo has 14,318.
Others are Ondo -13,373; Jigawa -10,680; Bauchi -10,583; Yobe -8,985; Sokoto -8,470; Borno -7,888; Zamfara -7,217; Gombe -5,386; Kebbi -4,413; Adamawa -4,280; Niger -4,069; Taraba -3,689; Lagos -3,513; Anambra -1,972; FCT -1,655; Ebonyi -947; Ogun -884; and Nassarawa -455.
On the part being played by UBEC, the agency noted that it is “discussing the Federal Government’s intervention funds to states on a formula basis to enable them to implement tangible state priority-based projects; build new schools and additional classrooms; renovate and rehabilitate existing school facilities; provide furniture and equipment to enrol more children and improve education quality.”
Speaking with our correspondent on the matter, the Director of Programmes, Reform Education Nigeria, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, said, “It is a shame that in 2022, we are still talking about a shortage of classrooms in public schools across the country. This shows the attitude the politicians have towards the education of the masses.
“When children go to school and they don’t have access to a classroom, you see them go back to the street and then you talk about out-of-school children. We need to make education a priority in this country. Education is the bedrock of any society.”
