Evaluation of Cross River State Access of Matching Grants for the Implementation of UBE Policies between 2010 and 2014

This study focused on the evaluation of access of matching grants for the implementation of UBE policies in upper basic in Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of this study, a research question was posed to guide the study. Data were generated from SUBEB office and downloaded from UBE web site (www.ubec.com). The result was presented in Tables A and B and simple percentages. The results obtained revealed that matching grants are yearly made available to states but Cross River State access to the grants to facilitate the implementation of UBE policies in upper basic schools between 2010 and 2014 is very low. Considering the finding of the study, it was recommended that to improve access to matching grants allotted by the federal government, the provision of counterpart fund policy should not be a condition to enable poor states access the grants that are lying dormant in billion of naira or such fund should be deducted not source from the allocation to states. If this is put in place, the national body (UBEC) rather than state body (SUBEB) should be charged with the responsibility of disbursement, procurement, execution and monitory of all projects covered by the grant for accountability. Keywords: Implementation, Policies, UBE, Matching grant, Counterpart fundin