Rufa’I Identifies Lack Of Quality Assurance As Major Drawback Of Education Reforms

The Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyat Rufa'I, says lack of quality assurance is the major concern of government in implementing its education sector reforms.?

Rufa'I made the observation on Friday in Abuja on the occasion of the inauguration of the Core Team for UNESCO General Education Quality Analysis/Diagnosis Framework (GEQAF).

The Core Team has as its chairman, Dr Ibe Anene-Maidoh; secretary, executive secretaries of some parastatal agencies under the ministry, while some directors in the ministry are members.

“Effective quality assurance serves as a driver for the acquisition of skills, competencies and knowledge commensurate with educational attainment.

“These are the ingredients needed for the development of the individual to enable him or her to meet the evolving demands of the modern market.’’

She said the lack of quality diagnostics/analysis and monitoring system was responsible for the unclear and ineffective mechanism currently in place for the systemic analysis and monitoring of general education quality.

Rufa’I said that partnering UNESCO “in this initiative’’, would fill the gap in the education sector, adding that one of the ministry's top strategy for developing the sector was standard and quality assurance.

“This initiative is therefore in tandem with our efforts towards the achievement of our national and internationally agreed targets.’’

She said the country would benefit immensely from the exercise as it would strengthen its capacities to address the challenges of monitoring the quality of education.

The minister said that Nigeria would be one of the privileged countries to be grounded in the use of the tool before its adoption by other UNESCO member-countries.

Rufa'I urgedmembers of the Team to justify the confidence reposed in them by being committed to the assignment, saying that they were picked because of their experience and the relevance of their departments and agencies to the subject.

She thanked UNESCO for its continued support and renewed commitment to assisting member-states to deliver on sustainable quality education and achieving the EFA Goals.

Mrs Magdalene Anene-Maidoh, the Secretary General of the National Commission for UNESCO, said the objectives of GEQAF were to develop a “generic but comprehensive and systemic general education quality diagnostic/analysis and monitoring” for the country.

Anene-Maidohsaid the project was targeted at policy makers, education planners and practitioners.

She explained that the framework's instrument was web-based so that it could have an effective feedback mechanism for improvement, adding that the pilot project was for select countries, including Nigeria.

The Framework was developed by UNESCO as a tool for improving the quality of education in UNESCO member-states, especially the developing countries.

Anene-Maidoh also explained that the Framework was meant to strengthen member-states’ capacity to diagnose and analyse, monitor, build and sustain quality of their education.

The countries implementing the pilot programme, include China, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Finland, Norway and Gabon.

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