The Federal Government has announced that plans are underway to commence the conduct of 2022 personnel audits of all basic education institutions in the country. Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, who made this known, lamented that the dearth of data on basic education has remained a major challenge, saying education planners and decision-makers have had to make do with data that are not up-to-date or are outrightly falsified.

Bobboyi speaking on Thursday in Abuja during a high-level consultative meeting on the 2022 National Personnel Audit (NPA) of all basic education institutions in Nigeria, added that the exercise would enable the Commission to collect accurate data on school enrolment, the number of teachers and other personnel in the system as well as facilities among others He noted that the last time the personnel audit was conducted was in 2018, noting that the desire of the Commission was to put in place a structure that would be updating the 2018 database on a continuous basis and through this build a culture of data generation and management down to the school level.

He stated that the exercise would be conducted in all institutions that provide full or partial basic education in cooperation with the State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory.

The goal of the fourth exercise, which comes after 2006, 2010, and 2018, is to establish a situation in which adequate planning is in place to stop overestimating demands and wasting resources, or underestimating needs and resulting in under-resourcing.

From the schools to the federal level, he added, the number of students, teachers, and other staff members in schools must always be in sync. He cautioned that Nigeria’s school data for any given period should be a national data that is available for use in and outside the country.

“After the exercise, we wanted to set up a system that would allow us to continuously update the 2018 database and, in doing so, create a culture of data collection and management at the school level. The lack of facilities and manpower at all levels made this impossible to accomplish.

According to him, if the process is carried out successfully, Nigeria will have reliable, internationally quotable fundamental school data.

It is difficult to overstate the significance of current, accurate, and trustworthy data while implementing educational initiatives. Data serves as the foundation for well-informed decision-making and allows us to follow progress toward the methodical attainment of educational objectives, plan effectively, and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of implementation options.

“Inadequate and unreliable data frequently result in plans that are flawed and have difficult-to-achieve goals.

“The 2018 exercise has been the most extensive as it encompasses all types of basic education institutions, both public and private, in contrast to the previous two exercises that were restricted to public schools alone.

The exercise’s results were widely acclaimed as having fulfilled international criteria and as a practical tool for organizing and monitoring basic education in Nigeria.

“We can make sure the exercise is conducted successfully so Nigeria has reliable basic school data that can be used and quoted with confidence anywhere in the world.”