NIEPA collaborates with UNICEF to develop Educational Toolkit.

The five-day training programme spanning from 15th to 19th June, 2020, had resource persons from NIEPA, UNICEF, FME and UBEC brainstorming on what educational tool kits should address, monitor and where it will be domiciled with emphasis on community engagement in the functionality of education especially the SBMC. The process sought to produce a robust and easy to use Toolkit that can be used for purposes of educational system assessment, validation and deployment for use through capacity building and awareness creation among its potential users.

Welcoming all participants on behalf of the Director General and Chief Executive of NIEPA, Professor Olivet Jagusah, the Institute’s NIEPA-UNICEF Programme Director, Prof Toun Akinsolu explained that the process of developing an Educational Toolkit will first identify selected and relevant educational indicators and then develop a set of items under each indicator with descriptors to the extent they should be present in the system. She further elucidated that these will be listed under the three broad goals that every system should attain to be gauged as having achieved functionality and efficiency in namely: Access, Quality and Systems Strengthening.

The Executive Secretary UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboi in his keynote address to the video conference highlighted that planning should be collaborative, ownership of plan should evolve from the state, MTBESD is a requirement for UBEC intervention in state, the need to critically look into existing toolkit to avoid duplication, partnership and funding from UBEC is guaranteed, NIEPA and UBEC should coordinate and integrate education analysis.

Other experts in Education Policy Planning Management and Research brought their experience to bear during the daily zoom meeting suggesting various analysis be considered in the formation of education toolkits. Professor Noel Ihebuzor opined that National documents should be consulted to get national policy standards and benchmarks while states should be considered on their level of development, implementation and funding of the ESP (Education Sector Plan). He concluded by saying the toolkit should be taken to the Joint Consultative Council on Education (JCCE) and National Council on Education (NCE) for acceptability and national approval.

The benefit of the Toolkit to the Education Sector is that it will be easy to use, permits self-assessment, can be used for trouble shooting and problem identification and it allows for comparability across states and LGEAs. Educational planners at the federal, state and even Local Government levels are expected to use the Toolkit to produce regular and reliable assessment and reports on the state of education in their various jurisdictions.