The National Population Commission (NPC) has launched the 2020 Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS) report for the evaluation of Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) services in Taraba State.
The Chairman of NPC, Nasir Isa Kwarra, during the event, said the survey would provide data on the schooling status of Nigerian children disaggregated by sex and age, as well as provide household education expenditure estimates, among others. The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education with the support of the World Bank.
Represented by the Federal Commissioner of NPC in charge of Taraba State, Sani Sule Saleh, Kwarra explained that the conduct of the survey was a fulfillment of the mandate of the commission as contained in the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.
Kwarra said the exercise was in response to the imperative of providing data for national planning, particularly in the education sector, adding that without data there could not be effective planning of any sort because it inspired development.
He further said currently the Federal Government, with support from the World Bank, was implementing the BESDA programme in 17 focus states across the six geopolitical zones.
BESDA is an intervention programme aimed at reducing the number of out-of-school children, improving literacy rate and strengthening accountability in the education sector, especially at the primary and junior secondary school levels.
In her address, the BESDA Team Leader and a Deputy Director at NPC, Abuja, Mrs. Sulami Sa’idu, said within the period BESDA had been in operation it had improved the school enrollment of children across the targeted states.
