Background

The reconstruction of North east requires a multifaceted approach taking into consideration the various sectors. One of the sectors that require immediate attention is education. Schools have been destroyed as a result of which many children are out of school. Teachers have been killed while populations have suffered dislocations that have disrupted the educational pursuits of their children and young people. Insecurity has made parents to be reluctant to allow their children to return schools that appear to not be secured. All these have combined to make education in the region to be in a perilous state. Given that the region was already lagging behind and in fact this was one of the causative factors for the wide recruitment base of the insurgents, the challenges of restoration of the education sector in the North east are enormous.

Kick starting these restoration efforts will be most effective when there is clear understanding of the state of the sector as it exists now. This is why the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) with support from USAID commissioned a Baseline Research on the State of the Education in the Northeast. The objective of the research was to document the current state of education in the region through the gathering and analysis of empirical data that will facilitate a better understanding of both the development challenges of the region as well as the core issues of social accountability that are implicated in the poor state of education in the region.

The research covered the all the six states of the region and examined the situation in the last five years to the present, focusing on primary and secondary sub-sectors.  The draft reports are now ready.  To engage stakeholders over the reports, CITAD has conducted presentation of the individual reports in the respective states between 23rd and 27th November, 2015, where all major stakeholders including representatives from state education ministry, committee house of education from the state assembly, SUBEB, P.T.A., NUT, NLC, CSOs, etc. were in attendance. The major objective of the state level presentation was to allow the stakeholders validate the findings and provide more inputs that can help the researchers improve the quality of the report ahead of the grand zonal presentation of the reports of the all six states scheduled to hold on the 16th of December, 2015 in Abuja.

Some of the common recommendations found in all the states include: 

 

* The need for state governments to increase budget allocation to education sector to meet the recommended 26%

 

* The need to recruit qualified teachers, and provide incentive for rural posting 

 

* The need for CSOs to improve public awareness to increase enrollment level

 

* The need for CSOs and general public to do more in the area of budget tracking and project monitoring  

 

Outcomes

 

* Some of the CSOs that participated have indicated interest in becoming cluster members to contribute to the success of the project

 

* The MD Globe FM in Bauchi has invited CITAD to have one hour radio discussion on the project free of charge, and promised to partner with CITAD in the area of public awareness for the success of the project

 

Commitment 

 

* Chairman House Committee on Education of the Yobe state house of Assembly promised said the report came at a right time and they will not waste time in implementing the recommendations. 

 

*Most of the stakeholders, especially from the side of the policymakers received the report as a wakeup call to act more seriously