CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION (UBE) IN NIGERIA ESPECIALLY AS IT AFFECTS TEACHERS PREPARATION

It is acknowledge the world over that education is a key to rapid socio- economic development of any country. It follows, therefore, that any society which intends to progress particularly in this jet age overtaken by revolution, needs good educational system. Nigeria like other nations in the world has reached a stage in development when it must tackle the problem of defining its educational goals in terms of concepts, need and overhauling. This paper discusses challenges to implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) as well as it affects Teachers preparation for the programme. It also focuses on some other problems militating the UBE programme; suggestion for the implementation process was also given. In realization of the role which education plays in national development, the government of Nigeria has ventured into various educational policies and programmes with the great expectation that, the felt socio - economic and political needs of the citizenry would be met. For instance, the Universal Primary Education (UPE) was introduced nationwide by the Federal Government of Nigeria in September 1979 with the major intention of taking care of the educational demands of Nigerians. Fafunwa (1986) remarked that a decade after the introduction of the UPE the educational outcomes showed that the national educational objectives were not fully realized due to certain national problems such as financial problems, insufficient competent teachers, overcrowded classrooms, narrow curriculum content and high rate of drop outs. In response to the agitation for a more functional educational system, a new educational system known as the 6-3-34 was introduced nationwide in 1982 by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The educational system stressed the point that a child shall spend six years in primary school, three years in Junior Secondary School, another three years in Senior Secondary School and four years in a tertiary institution. After a decade of the introduction of the 6-3-34 system of education, it was observed by educational analysts that there has been general lack of consistency in Nigeria's educational policies, the system and national objectives. This presupposes that the educational objectives of the 6-3-3-4 system of education have not been fully realized partly because of the inherent problems of the UPE which were not effectively tackled before the commencement of the new educational system. Furthermore, poor implementation strategy led to the non - attainment of the national objectives of the 6-3-3-4 system of education. This further led to the agitation for a more functional educational system that is very much relevant to the socio economic, political and cultural backgrounds of Nigerians. Therefore, as a positive reaction to the yearnings of Nigerians the Federal government under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo introduced Universal Basic Education (UBE) IN 1999. The fundamental aim is to get rid of all impediments to educational participation and extend educational provision of good quality to all categories of children and adults. The UBE programme is