Inadequate school census impedes edu data – minister ‎

The minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu has said that the inability of most states of the federation to sustain Annual School Census (ASC) is causing a great setback to solving the nations problem of out-of-school children syndrome.
Adamu said this at the opening of a three-day second National Conference on Education Management Information System (NEMIS) 2018, on Monday in Lokoja.
He said that Nigeria had not been able to holistically provide education data to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) for global comparison and efficient education planning.
NAN reports that the theme of the conference is, Making Every Learners Environment Count: A Panacea for Empirical Education Data and Solving the Problem of Out-of School Children Syndrome in Nigeria.
Adamu was represented by the director Educational Planning, Research and Development, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr (Mrs) Chioma Nwadei, said that the conference was to review EMIS activities towards improving the management of the nations education data.
The conference is also poised to identify innovative strategies for the generation and prompt reporting of credible data in the education sector.
It is therefore vital that we gather at this forum to brainstorm in order to evaluate the progress made, challenges encountered and chart the way forward.
This will be done to ascertain the current status of annual school census activities in the states and EMIS activities nationwide, important decisions taken as well as addressing inadequacies.
In achieving global best practices in data management, the challenge of conducting a holistic and credible ASC for the nation must be speedily confronted is the issue, Adamu said.
The minister further said that the federal ministry of education, in collaboration with the World Bank, had assisted some states with the conduct of the 2016/2017 ASC in order to bridge the data gap.
He added that bridging the data gap is another pointer to the federal governments commitment to providing quality and timely education data at all levels.
Kogi Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, said the hosting of the conference by Kogi further demonstrated the commitment of Governor Yahaya Bello to supporting effective delivery of quality education in the state.
She noted that Kogi was not receiving any support from World Bank, UNICEF or other development partners, because the past data used to benchmark states in Nigeria, did not correctly capture the realities in Kogi state.
Kogi is a rural state and has high number of out-of-school children and prevalence of teenage pregnancy. The 2018 ASC conducted in the state was solely funded by the state government, the commissioner said.
The conference was attended by representatives from all the 36 states across Nigeria.