The Federal Government has commenced the process of developing Guidelines on National Education Quality Assurance Policy to further strengthen quality education delivery in the country.
To this end, stakeholders have been assembled for a Workshop at Nasarawa State by the Department of Education Quality Assurance Services, Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC)
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Dr Folasade Yemi- Esan in a keynote address at the workshop noted that the present outcome in terms of learner’s performance as evidenced by public examination results below tertiary level still leaves much to be desired as it does not justify government’ s huge investment in education.
“There is therefore no better time than now, for all stakeholders to come together for the production of implementation guidelines on the National Education Quality Assurance policy (NEQAP)’’, she said, adding that it will ensure a unified and informed approach to Education Quality Assurance practices.
Represented by the Director of Tertiary Education Department, Mrs. Hindatu Abdullahi, the Permanent Secretary stated that the 60th National Council on Education, held at Abeokuta in 2014, had approved the development of the policy implementation guidelines.
She commended the commitment of the Federal Government to education delivery as demonstrated in the 2016 Budget and the plan to recruit and train about 500,000 teachers for the basic education level as well as the proposed school feeding programme.
Dr. Yemi-Esan acknowledged the challenges being faced by the FEQAS zonal and state offices and pledged to address them in due course. This is even as she commended the International Partners for their supportive roles in the education sector.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Director of Education Quality Assurance Services, Mrs Fatima Ahmed said that the workshop was a follow up to the adoption of Quality Assurance approach to inspections and subsequent production of the Quality Assurance policy, saying that the Implementation Guideline being developed would provide clear direction for Inspectors to operationalize the policy
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