Moral Decadence Invades Schools & Environs, Says UBEC National Scribe

By Khalid Idris Doya

A moral regeneration and reorientation training to address moral challenges infiltrating educational institutions in Nigeria has begun in Bauchi.

The 5-day training kick-started yesterday was organized by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which noted with concern that value system has been upturned making vices not exhibited in the past now showing ugly heads in the society.

The Commission’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi who declared the meeting opened, expressed worrisome that terrorism, cultism, rape ay high spate of violence are now being witnessed in every facet of the society.

Dr. Hamid Bobboyi told the meeting participants drawn from the 17 Northern states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja that Nigeria is greatly challenged and infested with moral degeneration.

Represented by his deputy (Technical), Prof Bala Zakari, Bobboyi expressed concerned about the prevalence of moral ordeals especially in basic education schools, which forced the commission to conduct an exploratory survey to determine the level of moral decadence in the Nigerian schools.

According to him, findings of the survey led to the development of a comprehensive moral regeneration and reorientation programme, focusing on training teachers to integrate moral education into their instruction, school activities, and psychosocial guidance to mitigate the menace to the barest level.

“Following a careful process of co-creation, testing, and refinement of the contents, the manual and handbook on moral regeneration and reorientation are ready to be used to train selected Master Trainers from Public and Private Basic Education Schools who will subsequently cascade the training down to other teachers across the 36 States and FCT”.

He added, “The content of the training encompasses building morals and developing social and emotional competence. Besides, it will also build skills of the teachers in managing learners in the digital world as technology has been introduced in the classroom and learners are needed to be guided appropriately in its use”.

“More importantly, the training, when cascaded, will lead to the teaching and learning of value-based education in the classroom which will empower our children to become responsible citizens and agents of positive change wherever they find themselves.”

Also speaking, the Director Teacher Development of the commission, Mr Olumayowa Aleshin explained that there is an urgent need to address the moral challenges infiltrating educational institutions.

Aleshin expressed worrisome over the rising tide of the moral challenges in Nigeria which, which he observed, has made its way into schools carrying with it anti-social behaviors such as cultism, drug abuse, gender-based violence to sexual abuse, and bullying.

According to him, such menace are negatively impacting learning outcomes and hindering learners from reaching their full potentials, indulgence the young learners in those harmful behaviors which portends danger to their future, the society, and the country at large,” he said.

The UBEC Moral Regeneration and Regeneration Committee Chairman, Reverend Edwin Jarumai has in a remark, said that the commission has designed a holistic teacher development programme aimed at building the capacity of teachers and education managers as champions of morality in schools.

“We embark on a 5-day training programme designed to enhance the capacity of state expert teams to effectively train selected teachers and education managers from the 36 states and the FCT.

“This training will expose master trainers to the key components of the manual, the methodology of delivery, and provide familiarity with real-life cases, classroom activities, and supplementary reference materials to ensure adequate mastery,” he concluded.

He said anti-social behaviors affect the learning environment, hampering learners from realizing their full potential and jeopardizing their future and the well-being of people, hence the need to equip teachers with the tools and knowledge to seamlessly integrate moral education into classroom practices as well as the entirety of schools environment.