By Fabian Ozor, Senior Correspondent, Lagos

For the Universal Basic Education (UBE) to attain the needed success there must be a need for the amendment of the UBE Act of 2004 appropriately to facilitate the implementation of the programme.

The Executive Secretary of the UBE Commission, Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, stated this at the 10th Faculty of Education Annual Conference of the Lagos State University (LASU).

Mohammed noted that the achievement of the Education For All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) lies in the need for Nigerian government through the National Assembly to remove all the encumbrances affecting the UBE programme.

He stated that intensive social mobilisation and sensitisation of all stakeholders, introduction of initiatives that would ensure the full enrolment of all out-of-school children such as free uniforms, free school kits and others;

"Construction of 39,239 additional classrooms annually for the next eight years apart from reducing the existing shortfalls in classrooms, engagement of 22,750 qualified teachers annually for the next eight years, purchase of 3,639,964 assorted textbooks annually for the envisaged newly enrolled children in addition to addressing the backlog of 96,545,388 assorted textbooks;

Other includes the continuous maintenance of all provided infrastructure and measures to stem the girl-child and boy-child drop out rates.

Modibbo noted that the challenges facing the education sector in Nigeria is the commitment on the part of everyone in the country, not just the government and its agencies, saying government alone cannot tackle the challenges of the sector, no matter its resources.

"The UBE programme needs and must get the commitment, involvement and participation of everybody to achieve education for all."

Listing the achievements of the UBE, Modibbo Mohammed said intervention programmes as the dividends of the various strategies that have been adopted in the implementation of the UBE programme.

These include the completion and supply of 109,440 units of classroom furniture at an average of 2,880 per state and 5,760 for FCT through ETF intervention, increased collaboration with JICA led to the completion and handing over of 490 classrooms and provision of 11,270 sets of pupils' desks and chairs, 382 toilets, 13 head teachers' offices, and 19 bore-holes to 70 primary schools in Kaduna, Niger and Plateau States to the tune of N1.6 billion;

Others are disbursement of at least N7.2 billion as 2005 and 2006 self-help support funds to 4,407 and 7,532 communities, respectively, to address problems of access, quality and equity. The project support fund to each benefiting community is N6 million, recruitment of 40,000 qualified NCE holders as FTS participants and their deployment to primary schools in all the States of the Federation, to serve mainly in rural communities, recruitment of additional 5,000 qualified NCE holders as FTS participants and their deployment to Junior Secondary Schools in all the States of the Federation, also to serve mainly in rural communities.

Also inclusive are the disbursement of N396 million to the public sector in 36 states and the FCT as support for the education of children with special needs in 2005 and the sum of N350 million to 31 states for the same purpose, in 2006, disbursement of N80 million to 22 NGOs from 13 states as support for the education of children with special needs in 2005 and the sum of N182 million to 41 NGOs from 20 states for the same purpose, in 2006; and utilisation of UBE intervention and states counterpart Funds.