By EDDY OCHIGBO, Kaduna –
Civil Society Organizations tracking and monitoring the progress being made by the Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led administration in the education sector, have tasked the government in the area of providing improved infrastructure and learning environment, particularly for girls and those living with disabilities.
Members of civil society organizations in separate interviews with NATIONAL ACCORD, hinted that although, the state government has made reasonable progress in the education sector, given the findings of field monitors who have been tracking procurement and provision of infrastructure in both urban rural areas of the state, a lot still needs to be accomplished to bridge existing gaps in the sector.
In the Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM) data collated between January and September 2022 by volunteer monitors obtained from tracked projects across 10 out of the 23 local government areas of the state – covering urban, semi-urban and rural parts of the state – so far projects worth 2.1 billion naira have been tracked in Chikun, Jaba, Jema’a, Kachia and Kaduna north local government areas. Others are Kaduna South, Kajuru, Kaura, Lere and Sanga.
One of the monitors, Mr Leslie Dongh, who presented the scorecard to participants at the event, called on the authorities to enforce compliance of the provisions of Section 35[16] of the Kaduna State Procurement Law by all ministries, departments agencies (MDAs) and institutions in the state; which stipulates that all public procurement records must be open for inspection by interested members of the public.
Dongh advocated for the strengthening of public service delivery for the education sector through transparent procurements.
He said: “Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the education sector and all tiers of government need to strengthen school-based needs assessment in the development of procurement plans and project implementation”.
” The state government needs to prioritize releases of budgetary allocations to the sector to enhance timely delivery of planned projects and programmes across the state”. He said.
Mr Dongh, however, stressed the need for synergy across all MDAs tasked with the responsibility of ensuring service delivery in the sector.
On her part, KADBEAM’s Secretary, Gloria Kasang Bulus, expressed satisfaction with members of civil society organizations, who participated in the monitoring and tracking exercise facilitated by Partnership to Engage Reform and Learn (PERL), a United Kingdom (UK) funded programme.
Ms. Bulus pointed out that the one-day public dialogue provided an opportunity for participants to interact and interrogate findings and the scorecard of state government in the education sector.
She explained that: “Citizens rely on open data sources, requests for information from procurement entities as well as co-created and validated tracking tool developed with partners, would advance and address service delivery issues affecting the education sector”.
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