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The UBE is particularly linked to the Jomtien Conference declaration on Education for All (EFA)

in 1990. It expanded the UPE provision from 6 years of primary education to 9 years of basic

education. The programme was launched in late 1999 but the necessary legal framework was

put in place in 2004, as the UBE Act (the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004). It provides nine-

year free, compulsory and uninterrupted access to basic education for all Nigerian school-aged

children, providing one year early learning, six years primary and three years junior secondary

education. The UBE Act makes it a punishable offence to impose financial charges of any kind in

public primary and junior secondary schools. Refusal to send children to school and withdrawal

of children from school were also made punishable offence. However, these are rarely enforced

and "primary education in Nigeria, to date, has never been universal, free, compulsory or basic"

(Urevbu, 2006:2).

Diverse policies and strategies have been advanced since the year 2000 to realize the objectives

of the current UBE and are supported by different international donor agencies. Some of these

strategies are summarized below (see also as UBEC, 2015).

Teacher Professional Development

is directed towards improving teacher quality and

ultimately the quality of basic education. The programme provides in-service training

and mentorship for teachers, provides a framework for assessing teachers' needs,

capacity and impact of training on their practices, and learning outcomes. Different

donor-supported projects provide diverse forms in the implementation of this strategy.

These projects include DFID-funded Teacher Development Programme (TDP) and

Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), Japan International

Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported SMASE, British Council, UNICEF and the USAID-

funded Northern Education Initiative.

Provision of Infrastructural and Educational Materials:

the UBEC provides

infrastructural and instructional materials to public basic education schools across the

country through direct grants to the states. However, inequitable distribution of the

materials, poor record-keeping and lack of routine monitoring remain major challenges

of this strategy.

Integrated Islamiyya Quranic and Tsangaya Education:

in the northern Nigeria very

large population of children are out of formal education but are enrolled in Islamiyya

Quranic and Tsangaya schools. As part of the effort to ensure that every child has basic

education, the Federal Government established integrated Quranic education

component that integrates core formal education curriculum subjects with the

Islamiyya Quranic and Tsangaya Education (IQTE) system. A National Committee on

Implementation of Almajiri Education was alsoset up in 2010, following up to the

Ministerial Committee on Madrasah, with the aim of ensuring that Qur’anic schools

children are integrated into the Universal Basic Education Scheme, strengthen teaching

capacity of the Qur’anic schools, mainstream core elements of basic education into the

Qur’anic education system in order to provide learners with formal education without

interfering with their Qur’anic learning system and, enhance social mobility of students

in the integrated Qur’anic school

Integrated Almajiri Education Programme:

this intervention does not significantly

differ from the integrated Qur’anic education programme but it is specifically directed

towards providing basic education to almajiri children who are considered to be street