Emerging Issues in the Achievement of the Mandates of the Universal Basic Education Programme in Nigeria

Despite the efforts of the federal Government of Nigeria at establishing equal educational opportunities for all children of school age and to gradually eliminate illiteracy and ignorance in the Nigerian society through the introduction of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme, the successful implementation of the programme has been a serious challenge. This paper therefore, examined the emerging issues in the achievement of the objectives of the UBE programme in Nigeria. The paper discusses the meaning of Basic Education and the mandates of UBE as provided for in the UBE Act of 2004 in Nigeria. The paper further identified and discussed the contemporary issues in the attainment of the objectives of the programme, which include: funding, teacher quality and quantity, gap between policy formulation and implementation, non-implementation of sanctions on erring parents, politics of enrolment figure and unreliable data and inadequate quality assurance measures. The paper among others recommends that there should be adequate provision of funds for the programme, re-organisation of the system of teacher preparation for the UBE schools, provision of the appropriate sanctions to the erring parents as provided for in the UBE Act and the creation of child-friendly learning environment.