UBEC Begins Nationwide Verification of 518 Schools for 2025 Improvement Programme

Universal Basic Education Commission is set to begin the verification of 518 schools across the country ahead of the implementation of its 2025 School-Based Management Committee-School Improvement Programme.

The verification exercise, which will begin at the end of June and run into early July, is aimed at confirming the existence of nominated schools and assessing their infrastructure needs before the release of intervention funds.

In April, UBEC unveiled the 2025 SBMC-School Improvement Programme, announcing a total allocation of N5.18bn for 518 schools across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with each state expected to benefit from 14 schools under the intervention.

Speaking on Tuesday in Lagos during a three-day training and retraining of state and non-state actors from the 17 Southern states on the revised School-Based Management Committee operational documents, the Head of Community Empowerment and Development in UBEC’s Social Mobilisation Department, Mrs Patricia Oche, said the exercise was necessary to ensure transparency and accountability.

The training was organised by UBEC in collaboration with UNICEF.

Oche explained that states had initially submitted 18 schools each for consideration, but only 14 schools per state and the Federal Capital Territory would eventually qualify in line with the commission’s guidelines.

She said, “We are about to start the 2025 intervention. It is a bit late, but we are going to begin verification at the end of this month towards early July. The SBMCs select the schools they feel are in dire need and send them to us. We then verify these schools because some people might be dubious.

“People may submit names of schools that do not exist, so we have to monitor and physically inspect them to confirm that the schools exist and that the deficiencies reported are actually there. After the verification, we will select the final 14 schools per state according to our UBEC guidelines and release the funds.”

She explained that beneficiary communities would receive the intervention funds in two tranches to ensure proper utilisation.

“We give them 75 per cent first and the remaining 25 per cent after monitoring because some of them misuse the money,” she said.

According to her, the commission reduced the number of beneficiary schools from 32 per state in previous years to 14 in 2025 to improve the quality and impact of projects.

“We want quality, not quantity. The Executive Secretary decided that we should reduce the number of schools and increase the funding so that beneficiaries can execute meaningful projects,” she added.

Oche said the intervention would support projects identified by host communities through their School-Based Management Committees, including classrooms, toilets, furniture, roads, bridges and other facilities that improve access to schools.

“Anything that will make schools more accessible to learners can be considered,” she said.

She noted that UBEC had developed three revised operational documents to strengthen the implementation of the programme.

These include the SBMC Operational Manual used for training committees, the Monitoring and Mentoring Pack for tracking implementation at the community level, and the School Improvement Plan Implementation Manual, which guides communities on project execution.

“We train the SBMCs once they are selected to participate in the intervention because every year we have new beneficiaries who need to understand how to implement the projects successfully,” she said.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Aisha Garba, represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical), Mr Rasaq Akinyemi, urged participants to return to their states and ensure effective implementation of the revised operational guidelines.

Garba said functional School-Based Management Committees remained central to improving accountability, community participation and learning outcomes in Nigeria’s basic education sector.

Also speaking, a resource person from Bayero University, Kano, Dr Hafsat Yakasai, said the revised manuals were updated to address emerging challenges affecting basic education, including insecurity and climate-related disruptions.

She explained that the review simplified the documents to improve comprehension and introduced better monitoring tools for measuring the performance of School-Based Management Committees.

“There are new dimensions of challenges affecting education beyond funding. Communities need to be equipped with strategies to mitigate these challenges, while creating awareness and mobilising local participation,” she said.

The National Chairman of the School-Based Management Committees, Abdullahi Umar, said community ownership remained critical to protecting schools, particularly amid rising insecurity.

“The issue of insecurity is a new phenomenon. There are many schools, and nobody can predict which one will be attacked next.

“The communities will use their eyes and ears to monitor their environment, identify potential threats and prepare for the worst,” he said.

Personalities at the event also included Education Specialist, UNICEF, Nneka Ogbansiegbe; Damian-Mary Adeleke of the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All; Dean, Directorate of Social Mobilisation, Joy Otoworo; Head of Public/Private Engagement and Partnership, UBEC, Abdulmumuni Abdulsalam.