A non governmental organisation, Connected Development, said on Monday that it has tracked the implementation of N569.5 million worth of Universal Basic Education (UBE) projects in 23 primary schools in Kaduna state between 2017 and 2018.
The projects, 16 in 2014 and seven in 2015 Action Plans, were tracked in 23 primary schools in Jema’a, Kudan, Kajuru and Zangon Kataf local government areas of the state.
Chief Executive of Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal made this known in Kaduna, at the opening of a one-day training for officials of Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) on monitoring and evaluation in basic education. He said that the training was designed to strengthen the capacity of Kaduna SUBEB officials and education secretaries to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation for positive learning outcomes in schools.
According to him, the NGO, with support from MacArthur Foundation is tracking the implementation of UBE projects in 70 public schools in the four LGAs in the state in three years. “In the first year of the projects we strengthened the capacity of Community Based Organisations, School Based Management Committees (SBMCs), Parents Teachers Associations (PTA) and community leaders on the UBE value-chain for effective oversight on spending.
“Together we tracked N569.5 million appropriated for projects across the schools, monitored project implementation and channelled project implementation findings to Kaduna SUBEB for redress. Our activities equally enhanced citizens’ engagement in basic education spending in the state through Follow the Money Radio Kaduna and town hall meetings.
“This time, we are training the officials, including the educational secretaries from all the LGAs in the state on monitoring and evaluation, current trends and innovative ways of learning in basic schools in line with global best practices. The aim was to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all in Kaduna state in line with SDGs number four.
Also speaking, one of the resource persons, Malam Abdulrauf Aliyu, noted that access to education has improved over time, but expressed concern that quality has remained low due to poor monitoring and evaluation. He said that a lot of children are going to school but not learning much, adding that the country’s education sector is structured for schooling not for learning.
“We have always assumed that building schools, providing the needed infrastructure and ensuring that children attend school is enough, and we end up with children who spent six years in primary schools but cannot read. Government must not only provide the needed infrastructure, including quality teachers, but equally ensure through monitoring that teachers do their job for learning to take place.”
The Executive Secretary, Kaduna SUBEB, Malam Nasiru Umar, in his remarks, said that the third-party monitoring framework has strengthened transparency, accountability and community engagement in implementation of UBE projects.
Umar, who was represented by the Acting Director, Social Mobilisation, Mr Ibrahim Aminu, described monitoring and evaluation as a sure way of ensuring efficient use of governments fund in improving access and quality of basic education. “I am very optimistic that this training will improve the quality of our education delivery system that in the long run will improve learning outcomes in our public schools.”
