Anwukah Harps on Data for Quality Education Delivery

The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, has described reliable and valid data as key to the delivery of qualitative and functional education.

The minister stated this at the opening ceremony of the national conference on Education Management Information System (EMIS) held in Owerri, Imo State recently.

He said the theme of the conference, ‘Making Every Child Count’ was apt and succinct, giving the importance of data for effective planning purpose, adding that data can add value to policy formulation and execution.

According to him, the education sector within the last two decades has faced numerous challenges, ranging from large number of out-of-school children to weak governance, saying that reliable data collection is key activity towards closing the gap created by these challenges.

He stated that the challenges in the education sector that often result in the development of human capital that are neither self-reliant nor relevant to market needs necessitated the maiden conference on EMIS.

“We are gathered here specifically for this fist national conference on EMIS that sets the stage for working out modalities, strategies and procedures for making every child count in our education sector, as well as strengthening data collection.”

The minister noted that Nigeria is facing severe data paucity at national and international platforms and urged all stakeholders and partners to strive to reverse the trend by synergising in the development of an efficient .