FG set to commence 2022 personnel audits of basic education schools

Dr Hamid Bobboyi

The Federal Government has announced that plans are underway to commence the conduct of 2022 personnel audits of all basic education institutions in the country.

Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, who made this known, lamented that the dearth of data on basic education has remained a major challenge, saying education planners and decision-makers have had to make do with data that are not up-to-date or are outrightly falsified.

Bobboyi speaking on Thursday in Abuja during a high-level consultative meeting on the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) of all basic education institutions in Nigeria, added that the exercise would enable the Commission to collect accurate data on school enrolment, the number of teachers and other personnel in the system as well as facilities among others.

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 a 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 out 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, and 2018, the exercise is set to create a situation whereby proper planning is in place to end overestimating 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 exercise was to put in place a structure that would be updating the 2018 database on a 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 different levels.”

He said the successful conduct of the exercise will give Nigeria credible basic school data that can be quoted and used with confidence all over the world.

“One can hardly overemphasise 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 achievement of the educational objectives, track progress made, identify the strengths and weaknesses of implementation strategies and forms the basis of making informed decisions.

“The absence of current and reliable data often leads to faulty plans whose objectives are difficult to achieve.

“The 2018 exercise has been the most comprehensive because, unlike the previous two exercises which were limited to public schools only, it covered all categories of public and private basic education institutions.

“The outcome of the exercise was generally acknowledged to have met the global standards and become accepted as a useable tool for planning and tracking basic education in Nigeria

“We can ensure a successful conduct of the exercise so that Nigeria can have credible basic school data that can be quoted and used with confidence all over the world.”

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