THE POLITICS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

Mustapha Adam, Aloba Fatimah Musa and Yusuf Suleiman

Abstract

Nigeria as a country has undergone various political structures and phases that have affected the tune of her educational advancement. Thus, education and politics are inseparable. The paper examined politics of universal education in Nigeria. It looked in to the concept of politics and assessed the historical development of universal primary education in Nigeria with the implementation strategies. Also, the concept of universal basic education was examined as well as the basic features, components, objectives and key issues in the compulsory free and universal basic education act in 2004. Management and implementation strategies of the scheme were equally examined consecutively. Also, the factors that hindered the successful implementation of the scheme were looked into. The paper concluded that ideology of the ruling political party influence the policies, plans, programmes and implementation strategies of the UBE scheme. It was suggested among others that: there is need for the amendment of the educational objectives in the constitution, the scheme should be devoid of undue politicization for proper implementation and that remuneration and other conditions of service have to be improved considerably to ensure commitment of personnel.