By JOHN ONAH, Abuja –
Worried by the overturn of moral and values in the society, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), has engaged stakeholders on Tuesday in Abuja in a bid to finding solution to the numerous vices.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, while declaring a stakeholders meeting on moral regeneration and re-orientation at basic education level identified some of the negative behaviours among the children as stealing, drunkenness and financial crimes among others.
“Over the years, there has been great concern over the degeneration of moral and overturn of values in our society. This is demonstrated in the many vices and negative behavior such as stealing, drunkenness, financial crime known as yahoo-yahoo, truancy, violence, and many others”.
According to him, the disheartening aspect was that, many of these vices are now prevalent in our schools especially the basic education schools.
“The Universal Basic Education Commission as an agency of Government has the onus to re-order the situation as it has as one of its objectives ‘’to ensure the acquisition of appropriate level of literacy, numeracy, manipulative, communicative and life skills as well as ethical, moral, and civic values”.
Bobboyi said that in fulfilling this objective, and in relation to the mandate of the Commission, the focus is the school.
“In as much that there are many other institutions responsible for moulding the character of the child, the school plays a major role in the life of a child. The school is a socializing agent of moral and character building where responsible functional citizens are developed from the cradle”, he said..
He noted that the basic education level was where learners are given the opportunity to equip themselves with moral values, skills and competencies that can assist them in effecting personal and community positive change.
The UBEC Boss added that, it was the main reason why the Commission has taken it upon itself to organize the stakeholder’s workshop with the school as its target.
“Prior to now, The Commission had conducted an explorative survey to gather information on the level of moral degeneration, its causes as well as its effect on teaching and learning in the school. Besides, information on what could be done to mitigate the effect of the degeneration was also gathered”, he added.
“We shall be sharing some excerpts from the report. This is to enable whatever discussion we are having today to be meaningful and evidenced based”.
The participants at the workshop, were drawn from the different facets of life: the Church, Academia, the private sector, practitioners, and the classroom teachers.
“This is attesting to the fact that we all have vital roles to play in the development of values and moral of children and learners in our society.
He urged the participant to use the opportunity to make meaningful contribution that will assist the Commission in moving the Programme forward specifically at basic education level and in the society in general.
“The mantra that Education for All is the responsibility of all should be our guiding principle in whatever contributions that would be made here today. This will also go a long way in building a society where people innately demonstrate appropriate behavior, obey law, behave responsibly, and have sense of patriotism. In addition, with the reorientation and regeneration of morals, learners at the Basic Education Level which is seen as the foundation of education would have appropriate character and value judgment that will make our society peaceful and a place where children growing into adulthood will behave appropriately”.
