Group convenes education innovation summit

Passion for assisting Nigerian children to have access to useful learning opportunities/quality education has compelled the inauguration of Nigerian Education Innovation Summit (NEDIS) with the theme: “Strengthening The Design, Implementation and Impact of Education Innovations in Nigeria.”

The summit took place at the African Sun, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos, recently. It successfully brought together implementers of education innovations, social investors, researchers, development partners, policymakers and public sector officials to rub minds on education innovation landscape in Nigeria.

At the event, sustainable and exciting approaches aimed at providing access to good and quality education, especially for the marginalized were fashioned out.

The Summit, which also had at its sub theme: “Improving Education Quality: The Role of Accountability,” was able to bring about strategic connections within the education ecosystem that will facilitate meaningful linkages between social innovators, donors and other social investors, government and providers of technical assistance.

Participants included representatives of government institutions such as the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), USAID and Ford Foundation. Others included TY Danjuma Foundation, British Council, DflD-DEEPEN, LEAP Africa, Ashoka Changemakers and CEI East Africa.

At the forum, deliberations were focused on how public and private sector organisations can individually and collaboratively work to improve planning, monitoring and evaluation in the education sector, and how the country can stimulate the production of high-quality data in the education sector.

Also tackled were major challenges to attaining vital goals of access, quality and equity in education, which had been traced to limited participation of the non-state sector in the funding, provision and management of education.

It was discovered that the professional competence to design and structure meaningful education partnerships has been lacking in Nigeria and in several other sub-Saharan African countries.

Speaking at the forum, Head of Researches at NERDC, Mr. Garba Gandu, expressed the desire and interest of government institutions to accede to non-state innovations with a view to ensuring that Nigerian children have access to meaningful learning opportunities.

Founder, LEAP Africa and Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Mrs. Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, stressed the importance of research in thinking about how the public and private sectors can collaborate to nurture promising innovations. Chief Executive Officer, Leading Learning and Consultant, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo emphasized the need for all education stakeholders to put the child first and to consider ways through which emerging innovations focus only on effective teaching and learning.

In conclusion, Dr. Modupe Adefeso-Olateju of TEP Centre, highlighted the role that an organization like TEP Centre plays in structuring and supporting partnerships between the public and non-state sectors, and offered implementers the opportunity to join the CEI Nigeria network to receive support for their scaling up efforts.