By Suleiman Abdulmu
min
Senator Natasha H Akpoti-Uduaghan, the Senate Committee Chairman on Local Content, hosted the management team from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) on Thursday.
The purpose of the visit was for UBEC to request Senator Natasha’s assistance in forming a partnership with the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to strengthen educational institutions.
Prof. Isiaka Olayinka Kolawole, the Deputy Executive Secretary of UBEC, expressed gratitude for the warm reception and stated that the meeting aimed to bolster ongoing efforts to enhance public primary and secondary schools nationwide.
He mentioned that UBEC had written to the Executive Secretary of NCDMB and copied Senator Natasha’s office to help facilitate the partnership. This collaboration would enable UBEC to access funds from the oil and gas sector for institutional strengthening.
The funds would be allocated to building vocational education schools, creating SMART junior secondary schools, upgrading primary schools to SMART standards, and providing digital resources to improve the global competitiveness of Nigerian students.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan expressed her appreciation for UBEC’s efforts to address the state of public schools through innovative solutions. She committed to ensuring that all stakeholders in the oil and gas industry comply with policies requiring contributions towards strengthening Nigeria’s educational institutions.
She also promised to present the proposal to NCDMB and advocate for its consideration, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between government agencies to support the digitization of education and institutional strengthening at the basic education level.
Attendees included Dr. Ibrahim Bala, Head of IT; Chime Ikenson, Chief Accountant; Dr. Aisha Abdul, Director of Special Programmes; and Muhammad Machido, Assistant Director of Procurement, among others.