Olaniyan Taiwo Abimbola1, Canice Erunke2&Shuaibu Umar Abdul3
1, 2 &3Department of Political Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
Corresponding Author’s E-mail: olaniyant21@gmail.com
Abstract
There is huge budgetary expenditure of the government over the years to primary education in the FCT, yet, it remained in shamble. Consequently, the implication of the declining quality of primary education has far reached impact on a nation’s moral, civic, cultural and economic sustainability. This study examines Impact of the mandates of Universal Basic Education Policy on the quality of primary education in the Federal Capital Territory. The study was built within the framework of system theory. It employed the use of qualitative and quantitative research methods drawing data from primary and secondary sources. Questionnaire was used and accompanied with well-structured interviews. Secondary sources of data reviewed existing literature from journals, online articles, and research projects. It argued that the mandates of Universal Basic Education policy have not enhanced the quality of primary education in the Federal Capital Territory. This is because most vital education facilities and support resources such as toilets, cupboards, and health materials e.g first aid box, water containers, and recreational materials eg. Swings and facilities for storing are grossly inadequate in FCT UBE schools. Other resources that were found to be inadequate are library facilities and textbooks. However, the study also revealed that the implementation of UBE in FCT has not been successful in giving access to free basic education to school age children with respect to free tuition in basic education; School feeding programme; Sensitization and mobilization of members of the public towards UBE programmes and; training and retraining of teachers. The study recommended that the government through the Universal Basic Education Commission should intensify effort in the area of establishment for an effective institutional framework for monitoring learning and teaching. This will drastically curtail the incidences of child-hawking during school hours and high drop-out rate in primary education. By so doing, the mandates of the UBE would be achieved and sustained.
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