BY NGOZI A. NWANKWO

Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), on Tuesday, said it will unveil a new template to address the gaps in the disbursement and access to the Federal Government counterpart funding for Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in the country.

Executive Secretary of the Commission, Aisha Garba, made this known during interactive workshop on the New Templates for the preparation of work plans to access UBE Intervention Funds, with chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB) and desk officers from 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) held in Abuja.

According to the Commission, the new template being subjected to further scrutiny and validation at the workshop would remove some of the gabs and encumbrances associated with access to the intervention funds by the state governments, which often lead to billions of un-accessed funds.

The UBEC boss noted that the Federal Government through the Commission recently had to re-align the delivery of basic education in line with four strategic pillars to ensure increased access and quality education delivery in states and FCT.

“Expanding access to UBE especially for rural and underserved population; Enhancing Quality of teaching and learning nationwide; Strengthening accountability and effective use of basic education finances and Optimising monitoring and institutional system for quality service delivery.

“Accordingly, the Hope Education Project of the present administration is a performance for Reward project for states that apply their resources for education judiciously, especially in achieving the four pillars.

“Consequently, this has necessitated the need to develop new templates that will enable SUBEBs to prepare work plans for accessing the UBE Intervention Funds in line with the four pillars as well as implementation of the New Hope Projects,” she said.

The Deputy Executive Secretary, General Services of the Commission, Tunde Ajibulu while giving the welcome address said the realignment of the delivery of basic education necessitated the need to come up with new templates for the access of UBE intervention funds.

“Therefore, this interactive workshop on the New Templates is timely and we expect you as the implementers of Basic Education in your various states to contribute positively and come up with workable templates,” Ajibulu said.