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By Stephen Adeleye.
In its quest to improve the state of education system in Kogi, the Kogi Government says the state is in urgent need of special intervention support from development partners.
According to it, this compelling need for urgent considerations for the state will help address specific challenges in the education sector.
Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, made the disclosure to newsmen at the sideline of a three-day 2nd National Conference on Education Management Information System (NEMIS) 2018 in Lokoja.
Osikoya said that Kogi has peculiarities in terms of damage of school buildings by natural disasters, high dropout rate, teenage pregnancies and capacity gaps at all levels.
According to her, in spite of these challenges, Kogi has not received any special intervention from development partners and no support for education at the moment, especially at the Post Basic Education level.
“Predominantly a rural state, the high percentage of out-of-school children, teenage pregnancies and high illiteracy level have been poorly captured over the years.
“This is due to the weak framework for education data collation and management at all levels.
“Absence of credible data, non-functional and streamlined national data bank and policy implementation gaps have contributed to skewed national and development partners’ technical support, as well as intervention gaps.
“These had resulted in Kogi becoming one of the `orphaned’ states, in spite of its geographical location in the North Central and significant burden of out-of-school children,’’ the commissioner said.
She said that the non-inclusion of Kogi in development partners’ education intervention and support, led to the state ministry’s refocusing attention on critical performance indicators and achievements in the education sector.
She said that Kogi had recorded lots of achievements in education data management system, such as strengthening data management at all levels and repositioning of policy framework.
“Others are strengthening the capacity of the ministry and institutions to ensure coherent, consistent and regularised process for data collection and standardised record keeping in the sector.
“Also are quality assurance and evaluation, establishment, training and functionality of the ministry’s EMIS Unit, including functional and updated website.
“Forging and strengthening linkages of cooperation with relevant and critical partners and stakeholders, as well as construction of ICT centers in schools at all levels,’’ Osikoya said.
(NAN)
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