Bukola Olatunji
15 April 2008
Lagos — The Federal Ministry of Education, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) are collaborating to develop Strategic Education Sector Plan (SESP) and Strategic Education Sector Operational Plan (SESOP) in Bauchi, Jigawa and Niger States.
The Niger State Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Asma'u Yusuf Usman once led a team to visit some schools in the state. In one of the schools, the visitors wondered if the students sang the National Anthem in their mother-tongue. But the shocker was yet to come. The Commissioner asked a class of Junior Secondary II students if any of them had something to say. A girl raised her hand and said: "I am table, I am chair, I am class..." The visitors had to reason that the girl was trying to tell that her school needed table, chairs and classrooms. Recounting the incident in Minna last week, Usman said, "I walked out of the school with a broken heart."
On another occasion, the Commissioner said, she was in a team, lead by Governor Muazu Babangida Aliyu that visited some schools. "We were almost shedding tears. None of us could talk. We left without saying goodbye. The classrooms were like places for worshipping idols. There was not a single furniture in the entire school. Some schools had only three teachers for primaries One to Six."
In her conversation with the Education Secretary, the Commissioner was told that these were, in fact, their best schools. According to him, there were some three or four schools in the rural areas where the only teacher in the entire school was the Arabic Teacher. In some of the schools visited, the instructions written on the blackboard by the teachers were full or grammatical and spelling errors.
"Something has gone wrong", the Commissioner said gravely. "It seems we have not even built the foundation. We are right in the ditch. We have to pull ourselves out to be on the level and then we can begin to build. Somebody planned for the kind of education that we received, so we must also plan for the education of our children.
"We need a lot of planning, commitment and people who have the interest of children at heart to help us."
It is this help that the Federal Ministry of Education, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) is offering by partnering with the governments of Bauchi, Jigawa and Niger States to develop their Strategic Education Sector Plans (SESP) and Strategic Education Sector Operational Plans (SESOP).
It is the first to be sponsored by UNICEF, but a similar pilot project, sponsored by the World Bank and the British Department for International Development (DFID) had been carried out in Kano , Kaduna and Kwara States in 2006.
Hajiya Usman, who launched the plans at a meeting of the Technical Team, held in Minna; thanked UNICEF, saying "the hand that gives is always on top."
Managing Consultant of the Niger State project, Dr. Sulleiman Adediran of Education Strategies International (EDSI) explained that strategic planning of education involves systematically charting the course for educational development. "We are talking of education with a capital E - a much broader concept than schooling - the all round development of the citizenry as a life long process." The systematic approach, he said, involves working on pre-determined priorities, based on choices, options and actions that will make most desirable impact on the system and on the life of the people. "Education in Nigeria these days poses huge challenges that require a total war, which we must win." According to him, the development of the Plans will be participatory so that the stakeholders in the state can take ownership of them at the end of the exercise. Adediran, who is leading other Consultants from NIEPA said they will only guide the Technical Team members in developing the plans so that implementation would not be a problem when the Consultants are no longer on ground.
The project, which took off in November last year and is expected to end in September, this year, is serious business and committees have been appointed to drive the process. The High-Level Coordinating Committee, headed by the Deputy Governor of each state. Its membership includes all line commissioners - Education, Health and Water Resources
There is also the Technical Working Committee, headed by the Commissioner of Education in each state. Its membership includes the Permanent Secretary, Heads of education parastatals, Directors and Department of Planning, Research and Statistics, as well as Budget, Education Secretaries, the Inspectorate, teachers unions, PTAs, representatives of private school owners, NGOs, Faith-based organisations, women's groups, Head Teachers and Principals, among others. Their training, which marks the beginning of the development of the plans, is underway in the states.
A core group of officials of the state Ministry of Education, Universal Basic Education Board and Agency for Mass Education attends meetings in the pilot states to ensure that they are on the same page.
The project will carry out SWOT analyses of access and equity, policy environment, as well as quality of learning. Sector analyses of education coverage, financing and cost, quality of education and its determinant, as well as equity issues and management of education service delivery will also be done.
At the end of the exercise, each of the three states is expected to have a 10-year strategic education plan that should guarantee educational improvement.
UNICEF's Education Specialist in the Kaduna Field Office, Alhaji Adamu Ndagi called on the Technical Team to show utmost commitment and the state government to support more involvement of education stakeholders from the public and private sectors to ensure the development of adequate and comprehensive plans.
Chairman of the Niger State House Committee on Education, Mohammed Baba Audu, urged all participants to "do the right thing at the right time and for the right purpose."
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