The Federal Government has announced a National Education Data System and announced that all educational institutions in Nigeria, public and private, must ensure that they feed into the system accurate and up to date information to improve the planning, funding and policy implementation in the education sector.
The program aims to establish a comprehensive National Data Bank that will include accurate data regarding schools, learners, teachers, infrastructure as well as other important education indicators.
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According to officials, the site will help government to get accurate data and make decisions based on facts and evidence in order to optimize allocation of resources.
The new database will assist to reduce inconsistencies in education data and increase the transparency and effectiveness of multi-level tracking of the educational programmes, the government said. It’s also anticipated to bring greater co-ordination between the education agencies and development partners.
The school owners, administrators and education stakeholders were encouraged to fully participate in the data collection process, highlighting the need for accurate data to provide insights into the existing infrastructure needs, lack of school teachers, access to quality education and improvement strategies.
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The Federal Government added that the database will also help in budget planning, discouraging arbitrariness in the use of public funds, and allowing for funding decisions to be made based on the number of enrolled students, not estimates, thereby increasing public spending efficiency and accountability.
The officials added that it would help authorities monitor short-term and long-term trends in education on a national level, giving them current enrolment data and information about learning results and resource availability.
The government pointed out to stakeholders that information gathered from the platform would be governed under the data protection acts, and exclusively applied to educational planning and policy development and improving the sector.
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The national education database has been launched as a continuous initiative aimed at modernisation of Nigeria’s education management system with the use of digital technology, and enhancing the quality of information to help shape national development policies.
