Focus
UBE Policy And Catholic Education
The church has an original teaching office (munus docendi) as one of the triple offices she has received from Christ her founder.1 Canon 794 lays down the fundamental norms in this respect:
The duty and right of educating belongs in a special way to the Church, to which has been divinely entrusted the mission of assisting persons so that they are able to reach the fullness of the Christian life. Pastors of souls have the duty of arranging everything so that all the faithful have a Catholic education.
This right to educate belongs in a special way to the church for two motives. First, from the historical/social perspective the Church is a perfect society, (sui generis) in a class by itself, differing from all other human societies, in its origin, history, inner dynamism and destiny and is therefore capable of imparting education for full development of her members. It has always taken the lead historically in education. Secondly, from the divine law/mission perspective, this right to educate belongs to the church especially because it has the mission of proclaiming the way of salvation and of communicating the life of Christ to believers, assisting them with unremitting care so that they may be able to attain to the fullness of that life.3 According to the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian education, Gravissimum Educationis, the church is the Mother of the Faithful,4 denoting the idea of a parent who nurtures and educates her children. Over and above all other institutions including the state, she has a duty to educate, because she has to assist all peoples; promote well balanced perfection of the human personality; develop people for a good society, for a better world.5
In concrete, this right and duty of the church is exercised through Catholic education in Catholic Schools. The church participates in this manner because education is an area of mixed competence between the state and the church; indeed the problem of education is perhaps one of the most important in both the civil and religious societies of our time.
Within the framework of the exercise of this right to educate, the church operates within the context of institutional and constitutional framework of particular countries. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) and the secondary education policy is one of such in Nigeria. In this paper an attempt will be made to explain this seemingly new policy of the Federal Government, how it relates with the educational policy of the Catholic Church in Nigeria at the basic and post basic educational levels and the possible areas of convergence and divergence. It might be necessary to trace a brief historical overview of the universal basic education policy.
Brief Historical Overview of the Universal Basic Education Policy
The Universal Basic Education (UBE) is a relatively “new” policy of the Federal Government in Nigeria. Prior to the UBE policy, other modules of education were in place in Nigeria. The first National Development plan that covered the period of 1962 – 1968 featured aspects of educational development and delivery. It was a policy to provide formal education to every Nigerian child of school age up to the primary school level as later embodied in the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme of 1976. Even the 1925 Memorandum of Education Policy (MEP) of the British provided some guidelines on Education Policy in Africa. Since then, it seems and obviously appears that most of the policies in education in Nigeria because of certain defects, ambiguities and inconsistencies consequent upon corrupt planning and decision as well as implementation are yet to record positively appreciable success.6
The Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme was officially launched by the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on September 30, 1999 in Sokoto, built on the concept of basic education for all as declared by the World Conference on Education. Almost a decade before that launch date (precisely in March 1990), the World Bank, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and other United Nations (UN) agencies, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Islamic Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) organized a conference in Jomtien, Thailand where participants articulated the need for a basic education lasting for nine years and which should be provided for all by the year 2000. The broad aims of basic education as contained in the Jomtien Declaration was to lay the foundations for self-awareness, life-long learning and acquisition of life skills and competences.7 The meeting recognized, among other things:
1. Education as a fundamental right;
2. The importance of education for a safer, healthier, more prosperous and environmentally sound world and for social, economic and cultural progress, tolerance and international cooperation;
3. The importance of education for personal and social improvement;
4. The value and validity of traditional knowledge and indigenous cultural heritage in their own right as promoters of development;
5. The deficiency of the current provision of education in terms of quantity, quality and relevance; and
6. The recognition that sound basic education is fundamental to the strengthening of higher levels of education and scientific and technological literacy and capacity and thus to self-reliant development.8
With the launch of the UBE scheme in Nigeria, the Federal Government was adopting the recommendations of the World Conference on Education, which meant that every child in Nigeria must remain in school for at least nine years before going to either the labour market or proceeding for higher education in the new 9-3-4 system.
Here in Rivers State the Universal Basic Education law no. 4. 2005 was signed into law on the 30th of July, 2005, by Dr. Peter Odili and the Board to manage this critical subsector sworn in on 30th March, 2006 with my humble self as its pioneer Executive Chairman.
In this new educational system, the primary and the junior secondary school (JSS) levels are merged into what is now called ‘basic education’, where those who successfully go through the programme proceed into the senior secondary school (SSS) and are exposed to arts and science subjects from which they make their choice, or proceed to technical college or vocational enterprise institutions that ought to provide skilled manpower in applied science engineer technology and commerce to operate, maintain and sustain the nations economic activities for rapid socio economic development. At the completion of the senior secondary level of education, the students could further with their studies by moving into the tertiary educational level; while those who cannot continue, either become self employed or look for gainful employment in the labour market. At the end of the JSS, those who cannot go further into the SSS could equally look for alternative means of earning a living, hoping that they had acquired necessary skills at that level of education as indicated in the National Policy on Education. The UBE Programme was therefore introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria to remove distortions and inconsistencies in the basic education delivery and reinforce the implementation of the National Policy on education as well as to provide greater access to and ensure quality of basic education throughout Nigeria. It is within this framework that the Catholic Church in Nigeria is expected to operate in fulfilling the divine mandate teach and nurture her children. Let us examine the universal basic education policy; its meaning and component parts.
1. Universal Basic Education Policy
The Universal Basic Education Policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria provides for compulsory, free universal basic education for all children of primary and junior secondary school age in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It also stipulates penalties for parents who fail to comply with its provisions.
The Educational Sector in Nigeria is divided into three sub-sectors. The
institutions under these sub-sectors are presented below:
ECCDE/Basic Sub-Sector
*Early childhood Care and Development
*Prmary Schools
*Junior Secondary Schools
*Non-formal educaton.
Post-Basic
*Senior Senior Secondary Schools
*Technical Colleges
*Vocational Enterprise Institutions (VEIs)
*Vocational Schools
*Open Apprenticeship Centres
Tertiary
*Universities
*Polytechnics/Monotechnics
*Colleges of Education
*Innovative Enterprise Institutions (EIs).
To be contd.
Monsignor (Dr) Pius Kii was the former Executive Chairman of Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board