Universal Basic Education Programme in Rivers State, Nigeria: An Examination of Implementation Challenges

Abstract

This study investigates the implementation challenges of Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Rivers State.  The study was guided by four research questions and three hypotheses. The study adopted a descriptive design which was used to explore the opinion of respondents on implementation challenges of Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Rivers State. The population of the study was 8,367 which comprised 5, 150 male teachers and 3,217 female teachers in the 309 public primary and junior secondary schools in Rivers State. The study sample was 500 teachers determined using Crech and Morgan table from the total population of junior secondary schools in Rivers State and comprised 263 male and 237 female teachers. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample for the study. The instrument that was used for collection of data for the study was a 20 items self-structured questionnaire titled: Implementation Challenge of Universal Basic Education Programme Questionnaire (ICUBEPQ). Mean and Standard Deviation was used to answer the research questions while independent t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that inadequate funding, inadequate infrastructural facilities, and inadequate trained and qualified teachers are challenges of effective implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Rivers State. It was also revealed that to a high extent, inadequate funding/infrastructure, and inadequate trained/qualified teachers militated against the effective implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Rivers State. The test of hypotheses in this regard revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female teachers on the extent, funding, infrastructure, and trained/qualified teachers militated against the effective implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in Rivers State. On account of these findings, it was recommended that to effectively implement the UBE programme in Rivers State, government should provide needed funds, infrastructure and employ qualified teachers. Training and retraining of teachers should be embarked upon by relevant educational agencies of government.