Impact Of Ube On Basic Education In Jalingo And Takum Local Government Areas Of Taraba State

Abstract

This study examined the impact of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme on basic education outcomes in Jalingo and Takum Local Government Areas of Taraba State, Nigeria. Despite two decades of UBE implementation, significant sub-national disparities in educational access, retention, quality, and infrastructural development persist across Nigeria's geopolitical zones. The broad objective of this study is to examine the differential impact of UBE on basic education outcomes between an urban state capital LGA (Jalingo) and a rural, conflict-affected border LGA (Takum), and to analyse the socio-economic and security-related factors explaining these variations. Specifically, the study investigates access and enrollment rates, retention and completion levels, quality indicators, infrastructural development, and the mediating roles of governance capacity, community participation, poverty, and insecurity. The study adopts a descriptive qualitative research methodology, drawing on semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and secondary data from UBEC annual reports, Taraba State Ministry of Education records, and international organization reports. The Educational Policy Implementation Theory, complemented by State Fragility Theory, serves as the theoretical framework, positing that policy implementation success is contingent on resources, inter-organizational communication, enforcement mechanisms, socioeconomic conditions, and implementer disposition variables that vary significantly between stable and fragile local governance contexts. Findings revealed stark disparities: Jalingo LGA demonstrates measurable gains in access, retention, teacher quality, and functional community participation, while Takum LGA experiences chronic infrastructural neglect, acute teacher shortages, non-functional School-Based Management Committees, and severely depressed enrollment and completion rates. Recurrent farmer-herder conflicts, banditry, political marginalization, pervasive poverty, and weak state presence emerged as the primary barriers to UBE implementation in Takum. The study recommends that the Taraba State Government establish a Conflict-Sensitive Education Task Force for high-risk LGAs, implement a Rural Teacher Incentive Scheme including hazard allowances and secure housing, and adopt community-embedded, context-specific implementation strategies to fulfil the promise of universal basic education for conflict-affected rural populations.

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