Kano State faces a significant out-of-school educational challenge, with over 1 million children out of school.
These challenges stem from a combination of factors, including poor infrastructure, poor teacher training, insufficient learning materials, and low enrollment of girls.
To tackle this, the Kano State government declared a state of emergency in the education sector, underscoring its commitment to ensuring access to safe and inclusive learning environments where every child can thrive.
The kano state education recovery Project
The Kano State Education Recovery Project seeks to address the issues of access to safe and inclusive education in Kano State.
OBJECTIVES
- Facilitate technical deliberations on education access, quality, and equity with a focus on Kano State.
- Serve as a platform for advocacy to enhance policy and practice on education service delivery.
- Foster partnership and collaboration: enabling networking and collaboration among state and federal education officials, public-private partnerships (PPAs), community platforms (SBMCs, PTAs), donors, academics, implementation partners, civil society, and old pupils’ associations.
- Create visibility for the out-of-school crisis that the state faces with an aim to influence more stakeholders to show more commitment.
The Kano State Education Recovery Conference
The Kano State Government, with the support of the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) in Nigeria and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), convened an education recovery conference to develop and implement strategic interventions that will reposition and improve the education sector in Kano State, ensuring sustainable access to quality education for all. At the basic education level will translate to sustainable improvement of access, completion, and learning outcomes (with emphasis on improving basic literacy, numeracy, and life skills) for all children.
The conference was the first in Kano State's ambitious roadmap to kickstart the journey to quality and accessible education in the state. The conference birthed a communique that contained clear next steps for the recovery plan.
Themed “Repositioning Education in Kano State: Navigating the Path to Excellence”, the conference was designed to address critical challenges on education access and equity, chart a reform pathway and foster partnerships in transforming education in the state. During the two-day event, stakeholders worked together to identify sustainable and scalable solutions that will reposition and improve the education sector in Kano State, ensuring sustainable access to quality education for all.
The overall aim of the Kano Education Emergency Response and Recovery plan is to expand access to safe, inclusive learning environments in which all children, participate, learn, and acquire skills for life.
Development of a Mutual Accountability Framework
To help guide recovery activities and ensure that all stakeholders and key players in the education sector in Kano state play their roles effectively, a Mutual Accountability Framework was designed by the Kano State Education Recovery Committee. This strategic guide aims to drive long-term improvements and reforms in the education sector.
The MAF is designed to align resources, policies, and initiatives with the overarching goals of promoting quality, equity, and efficiency within the education system. At the Monitoring and Evaluation and Validation Workshop, the Education Recovery Response Plan Committee focused on developing robust monitoring mechanisms, setting clear targets, and establishing effective evaluation strategies.
These efforts are crucial to ensuring that the MAF successfully enables all children in Kano State, especially the most disadvantaged, to access quality education, learn effectively, and acquire essential life skills.
Community Engagements and ownership
The importance of securing stakeholder buy-in and ensuring the recovery plan reflects the perspectives and priorities of stakeholders across all levels was emphasized. This would foster inclusivity and alignment in its implementation as community gatekeepers play a vital role in shaping public opinion and advancing local initiatives, with increasing influence within these communities.
The Kano State Education Recovery Project conducted sensitization and advocacy meetings within two (2) Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Karaye, Minjibir, and Tarakai in Kano State. The Karaye and Minjibir LGAs were selected due to their diverse populations, and unique social and economic challenges.
The stakeholder meetings harnessed the influence of over 450 community gatekeepers in both LGAs to drive positive change in education and enhance community ownership of schools. The activity objectives included creating a platform for community gatekeepers to collaborate and discuss the challenges facing children's education in the community while initiating solutions.
The activity also aimed to educate community gatekeepers on pressing issues like enrollment, retention, and completion of the basic level of education in the selected LGAs and the impact they can have through their platforms.
Strengthening Systems
The Ministry of Education in Kano plays a critical role in addressing the educational challenges faced by the state. This includes improving access, equity, and quality. Therefore, effective communication and branding are essential for promoting the government's efforts through the Ministry of Education. This involves engaging stakeholders and building public trust and support for education reform initiatives.
DAI conducted a 4-day capacity-building workshop from November 5th to 8th to equip key personnel within the Ministry with the knowledge, skills, and tools to develop strong communication strategies and a cohesive brand identity that reflects the Ministry’s goals and impact.
At the hands-on capacity-building workshop, participants were able to develop a clear and recognizable brand for the Ministry of Education (MoE) based on a sustainable communication and branding strategy. Participants learnt the basics of branding and communication, tools for effective communication and press management.
A comprehensive social media and visibility strategy was developed for the MoE to ensure they had a reference document to guide their social media engagement post-workshop.
Key outputs
- Development of a Mutual Accountability Framework: The Kano Education Recovery Committee developed a Mutual Accountability Framework, a strategic guide to drive long-term improvements and reforms in the education sector.
- Trained 30 Civil Servants on Monitoring and Evaluation procedures for sustainability of the recovery activities: During a five-day monitoring, evaluation and validation workshop, the committee, drawn from different Ministries, Departments and Agencies were trained on baseline and target setting as well as other M&E processes to help ensure the sustainability of the recovery effort by the state government.
- Trained 10 Civil Servants from the Ministry of Education on Branding and Communications for the Public Sector: During a four-day capacity-building workshop, civil servants were trained on basic communication and branding tools and guidelines to equip them in amplifying the Government and Ministry's efforts in providing education for all. This also improved the capacity to develop communication materials, including press releases, social media content, and visual branding assets.
- Conducted stakeholder engagements in 2 LGAs in Kano State: Over three days, traditional rulers, community members and members of the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) among other stakeholders were engaged in advocacy efforts to build ownership and educate the stakeholders on the recovery activities and the role they have to play in reducing the number of out-of-school children.
- Held a lessons-learning webinar session: At the webinar, the overview, lessons learned, and achievements of the project were shared.
Factsheets
rECOMMENDATIONS AND NEXT STEPS
Key RECOMMENDATIONS
- Prioritizing Education in Rural Communities: The government should implement targeted initiatives to improve access to education in remote and underserved areas.
- Economic Empowerment for Women: Expanding economic opportunities for women is essential, as it can encourage increased school enrollment by enabling mothers to support their children's education.
- Infrastructure Development: Classroom construction should prioritize high-quality materials to ensure durability and a conducive learning environment.
- Enhancing Science Education: There is an urgent need to upgrade curricula and provide modern equipment to improve the quality of science education.
- Comprehensive Counseling for Girls: Introducing formal and structured counselling programs for girls is critical to address their unique challenges and support their personal and academic development.
- Safeguarding Policies: Addressing the prevalence of sexual abuse requires a robust safeguarding framework to protect children and ensure their safety within the community.
- Engaging Volunteer Teachers: Communities should consider leveraging volunteer educators to address teacher shortages and improve access to education.
NEXT STEPS
- Improved strong political will at all levels. This factor cannot be overemphasised, and partners should continue to engage in targeted advocacy, particularly during high-level engagements, to ensure this commitment is sustained.
- Sustainability of coordination efforts in the Kano State Education Recovery process to prevent duplication of efforts, reduce donor fatigue, ensure partner buy-in, and facilitate the timely delivery of the Emergency Response Plan.
- Implementation of the Mutual Accountability Framework. This will include capacity development master sessions for technical and political level stakeholder members, particularly on policy implementation, evaluation, and the necessary tools. These sessions will focus on training on the Mutual Accountability Framework and the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) framework to enhance the effectiveness of their efforts.