kogiflame.com
Kogi Government on Wednesday trained Area Education Evaluators (AEEs) across the 21 Local Government Areas of the state, toward the commencement of the 2018/2019 Annual School Census (ASC).
Mr Moses Abara, Special Adviser to the governor on Education, Science and Technology, who spoke in Lokoja on behalf of the Commissioner in charge of the ministry, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, said that the 2018/2019 ASC would be carried out this week across the state.
Abara said that the AEEs, who were being trained would, in turn, cascade the training to other evaluators at their respective LGAs for effective data collection.
He described the census as a very serious aspect of educational planning, adding that accurate data collection was key to delivering quality education through effective planning.
”We have to know how many children and teachers in all our schools; it is very important we capture their data to help both federal and state governments in educational planning.
”Gov. Yahaya Bello’s Administration is paying a lot of attention to education and the only way you can effectively handle education is the accurate data for you to plan ahead,” Abara said.
He, therefore, enjoined the participants to take the training very serious, saying, ”data is not a guess work, you must record exactly what you see. Do not exaggerate or underrate figures”.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Mr Eric Aina, implored the participants to make the necessary sacrifice to ensure the state get accurate data on school enrollment both in public and private schools.
Earlier, Mr Baba Joshua, Assistant Director, Quality Assurance Service, Federal Ministry of Education (FMoE), said nothing could happen in education sector without accurate data.
According to Joshua, the ASC is something that is very critical to education development, as data will enable the FMoE to assist the State in the areas of needs.
He stressed that the State would benefit maximally from the data that would be supplied to the FMoE, such as staff disposition, structures and the needed materials.
”The Federal Government cannot do much in education without accurate information from the States. I am appealing to the evaluators to get the actual facts and figures in the field that would be acceptable to FMoE.
”The annual school census is going on simultaneously across various states of the federation,” he said.
Mr Levi Ocheni, Director Planning, Research and Development, Kogi Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, said the school census would be administered by five instruments.
They include Senior Secondary Schools, Science and Technical Colleges and Vocational Education, Junior Secondary and Primary School Education for Public Schools, and Private Schools.
”The key information we need is to get everything that goes on in the school system, such as number of teachers and their qualifications, the number of students and their sex, age, among others,” Ocheni said.
