ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION ACT ON GIRL-CHILD ACCESS TO JUNIOR SECONDARY EDUCATION IN FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY

ABSTRACT

Education has remained a social development tool for accelerating the growth and development of individuals and nations as a whole. In spite many attempts by governments at all levels (Federal, State and Local) to provide basic education to all children of school- going age, millions of children of the poor are still been deprived of this basic right. This research was conducted to ascertain the extent to which U.B.E programme has created more access to basic education for children of school-age especially the girl-child. The assumption of the study was that, the implementation of UBE programme has not created more access to basic education for the girl-child of school-age. Secondary data were mainly used; data collected were analysed using tables, percentages and content analysis. The study found a progressive increase in the rate of enrolment; which implies that more school-age children were enrolled in the years under review. Gender disparity still remained steady to the favour of girls, but insignificant because of the marginal difference (49% to 51%) in the rate of enrolment between boys and girls. It is however important to note that, inequality in education opportunity still exists, but there is a considerable improvement. This study recommends that, State and Local Government should establish more schools, build more classrooms to cater for the increasing number of prospective school-age pupils (students).

 

Keywords: Universal Basic Education, Access, Policy, Enrolment.