By Usman Usman Garba
Kano State Government in collaboration with Partnership For Learning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) have organised a 3-day Workshop on Education Sector Performance Review (SPR) for the year 2023.
The workshop was aimed at defining the policy position of the education sector and translating the policy into realistic and costed programmes and projects within medium-term sector strategy.
Addressing the participants of the workshop today at FABS Hotel, Zaria, the State Commissioner of Education Alhaji Umar Haruna Doguwa explained that the workshop was part of the present administration’s effort to align all activities under the education sector with new government policies and implementation strategies to achieve better performance.
He disclosed that following the recent declaration of a state of emergency on education and the conduct of an international conference on education recovery aimed at addressing the problems of education in Kano, the ministry would be holding sector performance review meetings to ensure that things are done according to the prescribed government policy and plan.
“That is why while undertaking our duty, we do spare our time to come and review our performance to see where are we, what have we done right and what are we going to do shortly so at least, we will know that we are going in the right direction of the present administration policy of improving the education sector ” Doguwa explained.
The Commissioner who appreciated the effort of Partnership For Learning For All in Nigeria (PLANE) for supporting the Kano Government on education programmes, called on the participants to make the best use of their experiences and come up with a robust and holistic approach capable of addressing the education problems in the state.
Earlier, the Chairman of Kano State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Alhaji Yusuf Kabir explained that the 3-day workshop was intended to enable the participants to study what activities transpired in the year 2023 in terms of the education plan.
He said the workshop therefore referred to 2023 activities to analyse what was being implemented under the education sector and….” what activities under the sector were not being implemented as earlier slated for 2023.
“I am happy to say that we have already got out the activities that we could not accomplish in 2023 and the reasons why we could not do that. So, we have reviewed everything and we are trying to ensure that in August, we come back again to analyse our activities to see what have we done and what we could not deliver ” said Yusuf.
The Executive Secretary of Kano State Private and Voluntary Institutions Board Alhaji Baba Abubakar Umar maintained that for the education sector to move forward, there is a need for reviewing and obtaining proper data that could serve as a basic ground for planning purposes.
Alhaji Baba Umar said as the state was long left behind in terms of having tentative data for education planning, the Ministry of Education and all its agencies would now be fully committed to supporting the effort of Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf in resuscitating the sector.
In her part, the representative of the Kano State Accountability Forum on Education (KSAFE) Hajiya Ladidi Fagge reiterated that as participants of the workshop, the forum would continue to track the performance of the education sector based on the budgetary allocation given to it to ensure that the budget allocated is been judiciously utilized and government makes prompt releases of funds.
In his paper presentation titled ‘Overview of sector performance guideline and content of review report’ Director Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry of Planning and Budget Abbas Ilyasu Karaye highlighted the importance of linking policy, plan and annual budget in achieving organisational goals.
