Special Programmes

Dr. Ene Adukwu

Director, Special Programme Department

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL PROGRAMMES

Dr (Mrs) Ene Adikwu was born on 20th January, 1964 in Jos, Plateau State. She had her primary education at St. Theresa Primary School Jos, Plateau from (1969-1975); from 1975-1980 she proceeded to Jesus College Otukpo, Benue State where she obtained her Secondary education, in 1983-1966 her Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) at the Advance Teacher’s College(ATC/ABU) Kano, before attending Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria for her Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) Guidance and Counselling degree in 1988. She obtained her M.ed Guidance and Counselling from University of Jos in 1992, Benue State University Makurdi in 2003-2009 where she obtained her Phd in Guidance and Counselling.

She started her working career in 1989 at the then National Primary Education Commission (NPEC), as Monitoring Officer II, now Universal Basic Education Commission.

She served in various capacities in the Universal Basic Education Commission, from monitoring Officer I and rose through the ranks to become Zonal Director, North Central. She is presently the Director, Department of Special Programmes, UBEC. She is happily married and blessed with children.

INTRODUCTION

The Department of Special Programmes has the mandate to coordinate and implement all Special Interventions to address the challenges of Out-of-School Children in the country. This include Girl-Child in Northern Nigeria, Boy-Child drop-out in the South-South and South-East Geo-Political zones, internally displaced children and the Almajiri Qur‟anic and itinerant children who are predominantly found in Northern Nigeria.

STRUCTURE OF THE DEPARTMENT

The Department has 3 major Units namely:

Boy-Child;
Girl-Child; and
Integrated Qur‟anic and Tsangaya Education (IQTE).

FUNCTIONS

The Department performs the following functions:

Implement policy direction and activities that are geared towards reducing the existing gender disparity in access, completion ratio and gradual elimination of gender disparity in basic education.
Provide conducive teaching and learning environments for pupils of Qur‟anic, Islamiyya and Tsangaya centres.
Collaborate with relevant Departments and Agencies for Mass Mobilization, Sensitization, Advocacy and general public enlightenment of Stakeholders to key into the education of Boy-Child, Girl Child and Almajiri education in the country.
Initiate other activities and programmes that would assist the Commission achieve its objectives on Out-of-School Children.
Provide feedback to relevant Stakeholders on the activities of the Commission as it relates to Boy-Child, Girl-Child and Almajiri education programmes.

ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT WITH DATES AND LOCATIONS

The following activities were carried out by the Department:

Engaged with Proprietors of the traditional Islamic system with a view to identifying and addressing the problem of the system.
Provide conducive teaching and learning environments for pupils of Qur‟anic, Islamiyya and Tsangaya Centres.

In January, 2020 a Stakeholder meeting was organized by the Commission in Owerri, Imo State where the challenges facing the Boy-Child Vocational Projects were highlighted and solutions proffered.
Infrastructural development including the construction of 214 classrooms, supply of furniture, renovation of classroom, hostel and supply of vocational equipments in the 9 Pilot States (Adamawa, Bauchi, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina,Sokoto, Niger, Oyo, Yobe).

Training of IQTE Teachers and Alarammas in the 9 Pilot States.
Media Programs to sensitize IQTE Stakeholders in the 9 Pilot States (Media jingles in Hausa, Yoruba and Fulfulde).
Inauguration of IQTE State Implementation Team (SIT) in December 2020 in 24 States and the FCT.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The following were the achievements recorded by the Department:

A total of 270 Teachers and Alarammas in the 9 Pilot States were trained as master trainers on modalities and guidelines for the Implementation of IQTE.
Media Programs to sensitize IQTE stakeholders in the 9 Pilot States (Media jingles in Hausa, Yoruba and Fulfulde) were produced, distributed to stakeholders and aired.
Teaching of Basic Education in IQTE Schools have commenced in some centres. The Teachers were provided by SUBEBs and host communities.
Establishment of State Implementation Teams (SITs) to assist in the planning and implementation of all projects to be carried out in the state.
Start-up workshop for 144 Proprietors and Technical Co-ordinators on their role and responsibilities in the implementation of new IQTE Pilot scheme.
Training of Master Trainers on IQTE in the 9 pilot states.
Boy-Child vocational project stakeholders‟ meeting in Owerri which exposed stakeholders to their roles and responsibilities in the implementation of the programme.
131 IQTE schools and centres from the 9 pilot states were provided with the sum of N925 million and they were able to provide the following deliverables as shown on Table 1 below:

S/N	State	Classrooms Constructed	Classrooms Renovated	Offices	Stores	VIP Toilets	Hostel Blocks	Pupils Dual Desks	Teachers Tables and Chairs	Motorized Borehole	Hand pump	Computers	Sawing Machines	Others Double bunk,mattresses,mats,generator,white board marker
1	Adamawa	20	26	8	2	11		1150	63	4	1	10		5
2	Bauchi	42	10	7	8	19		1080	52	2				20
3	Yobe	28		8	8	8	7	560	28
4	Katsina	20	15	6	4	92		600	46	7		10		20
5	Kano	29	8	3	1	35		710	30	2		5	20
6	Sokoto	39	9	13	13	10	1	672	39	1				30
7	Jigawa	23	6	4	2	26		460	12		7		36	20
8	Niger	8	27	3	2	40		820	45
9	Oyo	28	4	3	2	8		640	14	5
10	Total	237	105	55	42	249	8	6692	329	21	8	25	56	133

CONSTRAINTS

Some of the completed Model Schools constructed and handed over to SUBEBs are yet to commence Academic activities.
Inability of some benefiting communities to key into the programmes.
Inadequate deployment of qualified teachers to the schools/centres.
Inability of some States to maintain the schools/centres.
Some states are not able to provide feeding to the Almajiri which is part of a retention strategy.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES

The Department intends to carry out the following activities:
- Appointment of Vocational Desk Officers in 36 states and the FCT to coordinate Vocational Education in Basic Education Institutions at the State Levels.
- Meeting with relevant Directors and Desk Officers of Early Child Care Development to discuss strategies to ensure all basic education institutions in the country have ECCDE.
- Meeting with Directors of Special Needs Education and Desk Officers in all the 36 States and the FCT to discuss the challenges and way forward on Education of children with Special Needs.
- Monitoring and Evaluation of Commission‟s Intervention on Special Needs Education to assess the impact on the children with special needs.
- Working with relevant Departments to ensure all Vocational Centres established by the Commission commence academic activities.
- Sensitizing Stakeholders to ensure that projects and programmes of the Commission are based on Needs Assessment of end users to engender ownership and sustainability.
- Capacity building for Stakeholders of Special Needs Education and Vocational centres on modern ways of impacting knowledge and skills to beneficiaries.
- Advocacy visits to States to encourage them on the need to establish ECCDE centres in all Primary Schools across the country.

CONCLUSION

The report contains the highlights of major activities achieved by the Department. This was possible due to the support received from Management of the Commission. It is hoped that with the assistance of Management as well as the good work of all staff of the Department, future activities of the department would be carried out effectively towards the realization of the objectives of the Basic Education sub-sector in Nigeria.