The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has raised concerns over the degeneration of moral values and promotion of vices in schools across the country.
Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, stated this at the stakeholders Workshop on Moral Regeneration and Re-Orientation at the Basic Education Level in Abuja last Wednesday.
Bobboyi said 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; and found that schools have been negatively affected by the moral decline in the society.
“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 behaviour such as stealing, drunkenness, financial crime known as yahoo-yahoo, truancy, violence, and many others. The disheartening aspect is that many of these vices are now prevalent in our schools especially the basic education schools,” he said.
While stating that there are many other institutions responsible for moulding the character of the child, he stressed that the school plays a major role in the life of a child.
The UBEC boss described the school as a socializing agent of moral and character building where responsible functional citizens are developed from the cradle.
According to him, UBEC, as an agency of government has the onus to re-order the situation as one of its objectives is ‘’to ensure the acquisition of appropriate level of literacy, numeracy, manipulative, communicative and life skills as well as ethical, moral, and civic values. In fulfilling this objective, and in relation to the mandate of the Commission, the focus is the school.”
“It is important to note that the basic education level is 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. This is why the Commission has taken it upon itself to organize the stakeholder’s workshop with the school as its target.
“Today, at this workshop, we have brought in participants 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 said.
“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,” he said.
Earlier, UBEC’s Director of Teacher Development, Mr Aleshin Olumayowa, said the meeting was one of the strategies adopted by the commission to gather information, solicit advice and find a way forward to address the decadence of moral and value upturn in the society especially at the basic education level.
Olumayowa noted that UBEC was working in line with the goals of basic education, which according to the National Policy on Education, is to inculcate values and raise morally upright individuals capable of independent thinking and who appreciate the dignity of labour.
