CREATING A SPACE WITHIN THE BASIC EDUCATION FRAMEWORK FOR ALTERNATE LEARNING SYSTEMS FOR UNIVERSALIZING ACCESS TO EDUCATION

Abstract

This paper examines the need to universalize access to quality basic education to all children of school age against the current deficiencies and weaknesses of the existing structures of the formal primary schools. The formal school system, the paper noted, is inadequate, inaccessible, and unaffordable to a growing number of school-age children whose parents are poor or live in rural areas. In addition, these children come to school with some background factors which are often incongruous with the ethos of the formal school system, and which therefore place them at a competitive disadvantage with other learners. Using the framework of the ‘expanded vision’ of basic education as contained in the Jomtien Declaration, the Dakar Framework of Action and Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education (UBE) program, this paper attempts to highlight the roles that alternative traditional school systems, such as the Quranic schools, can play in meeting the learning needs of these marginalized children.

Keywords: Universal basic education, Quranic schools, alternative education.

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