UBEC: We’ve constructed 51 vocational schools for JSS students in 17 states

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) says it has established about 51 model junior secondary schools and vocational schools across 17 states in Nigeria.

The beneficiaries, it is understood, are states listed for the World Bank’s Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) project in Nigeria.

The project comes as a part of efforts to reduce the menace of out-of-school children in the country.

Hamid Bobboyi, the executive secretary of UBEC, spoke on Wednesday during an inspection visit to one of the schools.

Bobboyi was at the UBEC JSS/Vocational School in Suleja, Niger state where he expressed satisfaction with the work of the contractor.

BESDA is an intervention programme funded by the World Bank to provide equitable access for out-of-school children, improve literacy, and strengthen accountability for results at the basic education level.

The programme is currently being implemented in 17 states across the country.

It includes the entire 13 states of the northwest and northeast geo-political zones, Niger, Oyo, Ebonyi, and Rivers states.

Bobboyi charged the school management and the community to make good use of the facility, which he said was designed to ensure that graduates from the junior secondary school have the necessary skills that would help them in their future lives.

“We hope that it will be fully utilized by the school to ensure that our children have a conducive environment to learn and acquire some skills that will help them in their future lives, especially this school being a vocational junior secondary school,” he said.

“BESDA came to address a particular problem, the issue of out-of-school children. We have this in every Senatorial Zone in the 17 BESDA states. Out of the 17 BESDA states, you have one of these schools in every senatorial district like the one here in Suleja.

Bobboyi said UBEC is providing additional infrastructure that would help the state governments through the States Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) to ensure more children are enrolled in functional schools.

He disclosed that each of the JSS/vocational schools is equipped with a computer lab, laboratories, e-library, workshops, and well-furnished classrooms to give students a good learning experience.

Bobboyi said the school has been handed over to the Niger state government.

He added that UBEC would collaborate with the state government to ensure that routine maintenance is carried out regularly.