COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE UBE PROGRAMME IN CROSS RIVER STATE FROM 2006 – 2012chapter one
introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The emphasis on multi-sectoral
approaches to solving the problems of poverty, and other human
development challenges in the developing societies of the world has
become the emerging trend since the turn of the new millennium. This
paradigm shift is influenced by the premises that the resources
available at the disposal of the government is inadequate to cater for
the enormous challenges facing mankind in his social environment. This
therefore means, the government, the private sector, community and other
relevant stakeholders must partner and collaborate.
This new approach has been described by
developmentalists as Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach to
addressing the human development challenges in the society. It is
within the context of the above that the whole concept of community
participation in the running of the Universal Basic Education (UBE)
Programme of the federal government came into being.
Community participation in the delivery
of Basic Education Programme simply means the active involvement and
participation of the members of the communities where schools are
located in the management and implementation of the Universal Basic
Education (UBE) Programme as envisaged by the government. The essence
of this participation and involvement of the communities is to elicit
the spirit of commitment and ensure project sustainability and eventual
ownership of the project and school.
The concept of community participation
in the provision of social services has been described as botton-up
approach to development. According to Egwu (2004), it is an evolving
concept which builds on community resources, expertise, supplies and the
best way to utilize the development Latent Potentials which are
abundant in the communities.
The Universal Basic Education Programme
of the federal government was a brain-child of the Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo’s administration on assumption of office as President and
Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1999. The
programme was launched in Sokoto State in 1999 by former President
Obasanjo in 1999. The UBE Programme is a new educational reform which
focuses on the issues of access, equity and quality in the delivery of
Basic Education. The Programme is intended to provide a free,
compulsory, Universal Basic Education for every Nigerian child of school
age as contained in the enabling law, UBE Act of 2004. The programme
is primarily aimed at eradicating illiteracy, ignorance and poverty in
all facets in Nigeria because education is regarded as the panacea to
human and development problems of any society.
The objectives of the UBE Programme
includes among others as contained in the UBE Act of 2004: developing
in the entire citizenry a strong consciousness for education and a
strong commitment to its vigorous promotion, provision of free,
Universal Basic Education for every child of school age; reducing
drastically the incidence of school dropout from formal school system;
catering for the learning needs of young persons who for one reason or
another have had to interrupt their schooling through appropriate form
of complementary approaches to the promotion of basic education; and
ensuring the acquisition of the appropriate levels of literacy,
numeracy, communicative and life civil values needed for laying a sound
and solid foundation for Life-Long Learning (UBE Act, 2004).
The origin and antecedent of the present
UBE Programme of the government can be traced to the various
international treaties and agreements of the last Millennium. Some of
these were, the Jomitien declaration and framework for Action on
Education for All (EFA) in 1990, the Ouagadougou Pan-African declaration
on Education of girls and women held in 1992, the Darkar – Senegal
World Education Forum on Education for all which proposed the six EFA
goals in 2000, and lastly and importantly, the World Millennium Summit
which articulated the Millennium Development Goals agenda (MDG) in 2015.
It suffices to note that, the UBE
Programme is a roadmap to achieving the needs of the National Economy
Empowerment Development Strategic (NEEDS) and the Vision 2020 Agenda of
the government which were all conceived within the Framework of the MDG
thrust. The National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy (NEEDS)
Agenda also stresses on partnership and collaboration.
It is suffice to state here that the
Motto of the Universal Basic Education reads thus “Education of all is
the responsibility of all”. This motto undoubtedly captures and
delivers the message that the provision of Basic Education to the
Nigeria child is through collaboration and partnership.
The UBE Programme’s major goal as
outlined in the enabling Law, UBE Act 2004 and Policy Guideline is; to
engender positive changes which include making programme implementation
more responsive to the needs of the people and ensuring that parents and
communities are actively involved in the provision of Basic Education
delivery. The UBE process involves, advocacy and mobilization of
support to ginger education participation, empowerment of communities to
take greater interest in education and eventual ownership of the
schools amongst others.
The Universal Basic Education Programme
is Nigeria’s response to the call for “Education for All” as well as the
Millennium development goals number 1–3 which are directed at
addressing problems of development, illiteracy and poverty, gender
equity and elimination of gender disparity in schools by 2015. In line
with this policy thrust and direction, the UBE Act of 2004 mandated the
UBE Commission in section 9 of the Act to perform these functions
amongst others:
Carry out mobilization and sensitization
of the general public and enter into partnership with the communities
and other stakeholders in Basic Education with the aim the overall of
achieving Objectives of the compulsory, free Universal Basic Education
in Nigeria. (UBE ACT 2004:4).
Communities as major stakeholders in the
Universal Basic Education Project are expected to collaborate with the
government in the following areas in the implementation of Basic
Education.
- Prompt repair and renovation of blown-off school roofs.
- Construction/innovation of school through Self-help.
- Mobilization for enrolment of School Aged Children in schools.
- Provision of infrastructural and Instructional materials in school to support effort of Government.
- Assistance in procurement of books for School Libraries to improve reading and writing skill of Pupils.
- Provision of school Uniform and books to wards/children.
- Assist in provision of Teaching/Learning materials in Schools.
- Pooling of resources to assist the schools in areas of needs.
- Provision of friendly environment for teaching/learning in School.
- Encourage enrolment and retention of pupils in school.
- Checkmate Child Trafficking through enrolment of School Aged Children.
The Universal Basic Education (UBE)
Programme being a programme of the federal government is implemented in
the 36 States of the Federation including the federal capital territory
through the various States Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB).
It is on the background of the above
that this research work, “Community Participation and the UBE Programme
in Cross River State from 2006 – 2012” was examined.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The study sought to examine community
participation in the implementation of the Universal Basic Education
Programme in Cross River State from 2006 to 2012. The essence of the
study was to determine the extend to which communities are involved in
the implementation process of the UBE programme as contained in the
policy documents and enabling law, CRS, law No. 1 of 2006.
The realization of the Universal Basic
Education Programme of the federal government requires the collaboration
of the government with communities and other stakeholders since
government alone cannot achieve this. Communities are expected to
perform some of the following roles: ensure the maintenance of
infrastructure and facilities for the UBE programme in their local
school; prompt responds to renovation of blown- off school roofs through
Community Self-help Initiative; Mobilization for enrollment/retention
of pupils in school; provision of logistic support and enabling
environment for the implementation of the UBE programme; assist
government to address challenges of out-of-school children in the State;
identify and respond to the needs of the schools among others.
Unfortunately due recognition is not accorded Community Members inspite
of the critical roles these grassroot Stakeholders play in the
implementation of Educational Programmes such as the UBE Programme in
Cross River State.
Consequently, there is dearth of
information on the level of participation of Community Members in the
implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme in the
study area. Therefore, it is imperative to ascertain the level of
Participation of Community Members in the implementation of the
Universal Basic Education Scheme in Cross River State.
Thus, this study investigated the level
of Community Participation in the implementation of the Universal Basic
Education (UBE) Programme in Cross River State from it inception in 2006
to 2012.
1.3 Research Questions
The following Research questions were designed to guide the study:
- How have community members participated in the implementation of the UBE programme in the state?
- To what extent do communities participate in the implementation of Self-help project of the UBE programme in the state?
- What is the extent of community participation in the mobilization of
pupils for school enrollment and retention in the UBE Programme in the
state?
- What is the contribution of members of the community in the
provision of infrastructure and instructional materials in the UBE
Programme in the state?
- What is the extent of parental contribution to the education of the children/wards in the UBE Programme in the state?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to
examine community participation in the implementation of the Universal
Basic Programme in Cross River State.
The objectives of the study were identified as follows:
- To determine the various ways communities had participated in the
implementation of the Universal Basic Education Programme in the State.
- To identify the different ways communities had participated in the
implementation of the Self-help of the Universal Basic Education
Programme in the State.
- To determine the level of community participation in the
mobilization of pupils for school enrollment to achieve the objective of
the UBE programme.
- To determine the level of community commitment and participation in
the provision of infrastructural/instructional materials for the UBE
programme in schools.
- To ascertain if the level of community participation had enhanced the implementation of the UBE programme in the State.
- To identify challenges inherent in the effective mobilization of the
community members to achieve access, quality and equity in delivery of
basic education in the State.
- To identify the extent of parental support for the education of their children/wards.
1.5 Statement of the Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:
a. the level of community
participation has no influence on the implementation of the UBE
community initiated Self-help projects.
b. the level of community participation has no impact on increased enrollment of pupil in schools.
c. the level of community
assistance in infrastructural/instructional material provision has no
impact on the success of UBE programme.
d. parental level of support for
wards education has no influence on the successful implementation of the
UBE programme in my community.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The finding of this study will be very
useful to the government, ubec Governing Board, the State Universal
Basic Education Board Management, and the various stakeholders involved
in the delivery of Basic Education in the State and the country at
large.
- The findings from this study will in no doubt awaken the
consciousness of Members of the community on their roles and
expectations toward the successful implementation of Basic Education in
the State. This is so because many parents and members of the community
still have the strong notion and belief that it is the sole
responsibility of the government to provide basic education to the
people.
- The findings from the study will create a proper synergy for better
partnership and collaboration between the government and community
members in the provision of basic education.
- The findings from the study will help identify some of the
challenges that hinder effective community mobilization for support of
the UBE Programme.
- The findings of the research will create an enabling environment
where communities and other stakeholders would have opportunity to
interact and discuss issues relating to the provision of basic needs of
the school and how these needs can be met.
- The findings from the research study will assist identify the
abundant human and material resources available to communities and with
the aim of harnessing and pooling these resources with the community
support for the development of basic education in the State.
- The finding of this study will serve as literature review to future
scholars who may want to carry out research in similar related area.
- Lastly, it will be useful to the management of Universal Basic
Education Commission as reference point to other State SUBEB how to
mobilize community support for UBE Programme.
1.7 Scope of the Study
this Research Work is focused on
community participation and the implementation of Universal Basic
Education Programme in Cross River State from the inception of the UBE
Programme in the State from 2006 to 2012. The 18 Local Government
Education Authorities in the State where 1,018 public primary school
existed for the delivery of Basic Education Programme constituted the
scope of coverage for the study.
Information and data used for the
analysis of this study were from sampled school/communities in the 18
LGEAs on the expected areas of community participation such as prompt
response to renovation of school blocks, mobilization of pupils by
parents for school enrollment, provision of
infrastructural/instructional materials for effective teaching and
learning, provision of relevant school materials/textbooks for pupils by
parents among others.
Akin to this, the study was restricted
to relevant stakeholders at the communities such as traditional rulers,
members of the School Based Management Committees (SBMC), School heads,
parents, Teachers, Community members who also constituted part of the
scope of this study.