The Honourable Minister of Education (HME), Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, OON, has tasked desk officers of the Federal Ministry of Education to track, collate, harmonise and report progress in the implementation of the ministerial deliverables and the education sector roadmap. Professor Mamman stated this last Monday when he opened a two-day capacity building workshop for desk officers of the ministry, parastatals, tertiary institutions and Federal Government colleges, held at the Idris Abdulkadir Auditorium of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Abuja.
The workshop was on the implementation, collation, harmonisation and reportage of federal government Presidential priority areas/Ministerial Deliverables and roadmap for the education sector. He said, “Today’s training is aimed at enhancing your capacity to track, collate, harmonise and report progress on the implementation of the Ministerial Deliverables and the Education Sector Roadmap. It will further ensure that government policies and programmes are effectively tracked and implemented. “It is important to mention here that your prompt actions and submission of all the required documents will be instrumental to our overall success and the attainment of the priorities of the present administration. I therefore urge you to turn in a timely, credibly and reliable report of the activities, programmes and projects of your departments and organisations. “Worthy of note is the fact that 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. “As officers in the education sector, I do not need to overemphasize the pertinent role education plays in the overall development of our nation. You must know that all other sectors are dependent on the education sector for their successes. Therefore, we must passionately, and patriotically salvage our country, Nigeria,” he added.
The Minister explained that the Federal Government of Nigeria would soon sign a partnership contract with an ICT firm to generate data on all schools in Nigeria in order to tackle challenges in the sector. In his words: “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”. He stressed it was necessary because the Ministry need to know its teachers and every single students as well as their data in order to know the trend of learning and available infrastructure. Explaining further, Professor Mamman said the exercise would enhance decision making and policy formulation as the data collected and collated would aid evidence-based planning, measure implementation and progress and identify areas where improvement was required. He said that the capacity building workshop mainly focused on the implementation, collation, harmonization and reportage of ministerial deliverables. He stressed that the data being sought after would help to advise the state government on the right policy to make that would affect schools positively in their domain.
On his part, the Honourable Minister of State for Education (HMSE), Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, said it has been 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.
In a goodwill message, the representative of the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and its Senior Education Officer, Mr. Ian Artfield, pledged to support government in actualizing the deliverables and as well support in addressing Learning Crisis through continuing education financing.
The highlight of the day was the unveiling of the working document by the Minister. The working documents contained the 23 deliverables and 13 pillars as its framework.
It would be recalled that President Bola Tinubu in his Renewed Hope Agenda for the Education Sector had signed the 23 Ministerial Deliverables and the 13 pillars of the education sector Roadmap 2024 – 2027.
The Deliverables were targeted at Strengthening research and innovation in education sector; Reviewing the status of technical and vocational education board; Strengthening the education management information system, among others.
Meanwhile, the Acting Executive Secretary, NUC, Mr. Chris. J. Maiyaki, was among the stakeholders that participated at the workshop, alongside top management staff of the Commission.