Maduako Igbokwe l Friday, September 24, 2021
ONITSHA, Anambra, Nigeria – Statistic provided by the Evidence and Collaboration for Inclusive Development/Christian ECID has revealed that 90,000 children in Anambra State are out of school. This was contained in a presentation anchored by Dr Ben Nwosu ,a Research Fellow of the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsuka in Awka at a workshop organised by ECID.
According to Nwosu, the statistics is worrisome given that Anambra is amongst educationally advantaged states in the country. He said his findings showed that parents claimed to be paying school a fees for their children and wards despite the free education policy professed by the state’s government.
He said, “It’s quite worrying because, based on official statistics, Anambra is one of the educationally advantaged states. It’s more worrying when you go into the field and see the wide gap existing between the rural and urban locations.
“Maybe, what exists in more developed parts of the state swallows those of the rural areas where you see dilapidated infrastructure with pupils running around due to absence of teachers amenities”.
Nwosu called on the state government to conduct school census to find out existing infrastructure, manpower and general data in the education sector for intervention, planning and budgeting.
Reacting to the poor data, the state Commissioner for Economic Planning, Budget and Development Partners, Mark Okoye said the findings from the workshop would assist the state government in policy formulation and data planning, noting that he would engage relevant MDAs towards addressing some of the concerns.
He said, despite that, the state government will keeps publishing its data, including GDP reports and Public Finance Management.
According to him, the state government is partnering with the organization that built a portal for the state , and it is one of the biggest achievements in the synergy. Also speaking on the issues , chairman of Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB Mr. Patrick Ugbuaja said state schools lack data.
According to him, during the covid 19 pandemic in 2020,they wanted to find out schools without toilet and running water they could not because of lack of adequate data. He said that ,the commission hoped that ECID would assist the board in generating data to solve the problems.
