Federal Government, on Monday, said it will undertake a mini-census focusing on education, to help the current administration effectively tackle the myriad of challenges in the sector.
Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, made this known in Abuja while declaring open a two-day capacity-building workshop for desk officers in the ministry, parastatals departments, and agencies.
The workshop was on the implementation, collation, harmonization, and reportage of federal government Presidential priority areas/Ministerial Deliverables and roadmap for the Education Sector.
The event also witnessed the unveiling of the Federal Ministry of Education, working documents, and signing of the statement of commitment by the directors and heads of agencies under the ministry.
On the census exercise, Mamman said government would sign a partnership contract with an Information and Communication (ICT) firm to comprehensively generate data on all schools in Nigeria covering number of schools, teachers at various levels, each student and available classrooms among others.
He said the issue of the teacher-student ratio was key in effective learning.
“It is our plan that by the end of this year or early next year, we will be signing a partnership contract with a firm that will be working with our IT people to generate data on all schools in Nigeria.
“This is because we need to know our teachers and every single student; we need data to know the trend of learning and our school infrastructure.
“This exercise will enhance decision-making and policy formulation as the data collected and collated will aid evidence-based planning, measure implementation and progress, and identify areas where improvement is required,’’ he said.
Mamman added that the data would help advise the state governments on the right policy to make that would affect the schools positively.
He charged heads of MDAs, desk officers, and other participants to tailor their programmes, activities, and projects towards the realisation of the deliverables.
“The uppermost focus of the Ministry in general is in the areas of ensuring the generation of credible, timely, and reliable education data at all levels and the promotion of skill development.
“It is also in the enhancement of skill development across the entire education landscape for innovative and employability education; teacher training and development; and reducing the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
“I believe if we get it right in education, everything else will fall into place.
“The doctors who man our hospitals, the nurses who deliver the vaccines, the engineers in charge of our construction work—everybody is the by-product of our activities,’’ he said.
Recalled that President Bola Tinubu, in his Renewed Hope Agenda for the Education Sector, signed 23 Ministerial Deliverables and the 13 Pillars of the Education Sector Roadmap 2024-2027.
The deliverables are: strengthening research and innovation in the education sector; reviewing the status of the technical and vocational education board; strengthening the education management information system, among others.
On his part, the Minister of state for education, Dr Yusuf Tanko Sununu said it is the Ministry’s hope and expectation that the training will up-skill and enhance their capacity to qualitatively track, collect, collate, harmonize and report the activities, programmes, and projects in their various departments and organisations.
