Management of universal basic education policy in the villages in Nigeria

This study examined the managerial structure of Universal Basic Education (UBE) policy embraced by the governments of African countries towards ensuring free, compulsory and uninterrupted access to 9-year formal education for every child of school-age by 2050. Previous studies on UBE policy implementation in Nigeria reported unequal educational participation among school-aged children in the villages or rural areas when compared with the urban school-aged students. This paper seeks to understand if management could be attributed as the reason for over 4.5 million out-of-school children in two regional rural areas in Nigeria. Data collection for this study was through document analysis and semi-structured interviews with 20 local education administrators in two rural areas. According to the analysed data, political issues and inadequate infrastructure facilities to support teaching and learning were major challenges for managing education. Recommendations have been provided to enhance equitable opportunity to education among the school-aged children in the rural areas in Nigeria.