To ascertain numbers of teachers , classrooms and pupils in the Basic Schools across Nigeria, the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC, says plans are underway to conduct the 2022 Personnel Audit of Basic Schools across the country.
Bobboyi added that the exercise would enable the Commission collect accurate data on school enrolment, number of teachers and other personnel in the system as well as facilities among others.
Bobboyi decried the dearth of data on basic education saying it has remained a major challenge.
He added that education planners and decision makers have had to make do with data that are not up-to-date or are outrightly falsified.
He noted that the last time the personnel audit was conducted was in 2018, noting that the desire of the Commission was to put in place a structure that would be updating the 2018 database on continuous basis and through this build a culture of data generation and management down to the school level.
According to him, the exercise would be carried in collaboration with the State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory in all schools offering full or elements of basic education..
The fourth after 2006, 2010, 2018, the excercise is set to create a situation whereby proper planning is in place to end over estimate of needs leading to waste of resources, or under-estimation which leads to under-resourcing, would be nipped in the bud.
He warned that Nigeria’s school data for any particular period should be a national data that is available for use in and outside the country, adding that from the schools to the federal level, and at all times, the number of characters of learners, teachers and other personnel in schools must be in sync.
“Our desire after the excercise was to put in place a structure that would be updating the 2018 database in continuous basis and through this, build a culture of data generation and management down to the school level. This could not be achieved due to the absence of facilities and personnel at the difference levels.”
He said the successful conduct of the excercise will give Nigeria a credible basic school data that can be quoted and used with confidence all over the world.
“One can hardly over emphasise the importance of up-to-date data, accurate and reliable data in the implementation of educational programmes Data enables us to plan effectively towards a systematic achievment of the educational objectives, track progress made, identify the strengths and weaknesses of implementation strategies and forms the basis of making informed decisions.
