NPC urges govt support in basic education
Chima Azubuike, Gombe
National Population Commission (NPC), has identified education as the bedrock of national development, adding that for Nigeria to edge forward every facet of education must not suffer neglect, this includes basic.
Confirming this assertion on Wednesday, at Gombe state dissemination of report; 2020 Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS), Hon. Nasir Kwarra, chairman National Population Commission said Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS), will increase education data availability, adding that it will also serve as tool for planning, monitoring and measuring for Better Service Delivery for All (BESDA) focus and non focus states.
Represented by the Federal Commissioner, in charge of Gombe, Hon. Abubakar Danburam, who stated that the conduct of the survey will revamp the education sector.
According to Kwarra, the Federal Government of Nigeria with support from the World Bank is implementing the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme in 17 focus states across the 6 geographical zones in the country.
“BESDA is an intervention programme that seeks to among others, reduce the number of out of school children, improve literacy rates and strengthen accountability in the education sector especially at the primary and junior secondary school levels in Nigeria.
“The 2020 NEDS is a nationally representative sample survey that took place in all states of the federation and the federal capital territory with special focus on the 17 Better Education Service Delivery Areas (BESDA) intervention states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara respectively.
“The 2020 NEDS was carried out in 9,711 enumeration areas in the focus states while 458 enumeration areas were covered in the non focus states, bringing the total number of enumeration areas to 10,169 across the country,” he said.
While urging government to put the survey to use, Kwarra added that “Government and other end users must make use of the 2020 NEDS to improve the educational system, especially the out of school children. We must therefore do all we can to ensure that every school age child in Nigeria is given the opportunity to go to school and be the best he/she can be, every child’s dream must be nurtured.”
Also speaking, Director Research and Statistics, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Gombe, Jonathan Kul said the state is committed to addressing the challenges associated with the increasing number of out of school children in the state.
He said, “The issue we had was from NEDS of 2015 stood at 453,000 but when BESDA commenced we started with community mapping fortunately the number has skyrocked to 700,000. We have a target of reducing this number in 5 years by 15% which is 67,000.
“We will look in the communities to see the reason for the increase in out of school children to know, those who just came.”
On his part, Governor Inuwa Yahaya, who launched the report, was represented by the commissioner for higher education Meshack Audu Lauco, he reiterated the effort of the state government to turn the tide in basic education.
Yahaya said, “Statistics, data when obtained from scientifically verifiable means. When you look at yourself in the mirror if what you see doesn’t please you that is the situation on ground, it tells you something must be done.”
