Upon assuming office in 2019, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, Adamawa’s state governor, promptly implemented tuition-free learning across primary and secondary schools, fulfilling a key promise he made in his inaugural speech. Additionally, he covered the costs of WAEC and NECO examinations for public-school students who passed the mock exams conducted by the state.
Fintiri’s expedient actions came as no surprise from an administration that prioritised education and its relevance in human capital development in Adamawa State. In 2022, the government formulated a Medium-Term Sector Strategy, or MTSS, to guide education policies within the state from 2023 to 2025.
The ministry responsible for carrying out the plans outlined in the MTSS is the State Ministry for Education and Human Capital Development, comprised of seven departments with individual responsibilities. These departments include administration; finance and supplies; planning, research and statistics; quality assurance; basic education; science and technology; and human capital development.
Sequel to these departments are five agencies, notably the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB); the Post Primary School Management Board (PPSMB); the Education Resource Centre (ERC); the State Mass Education Board (SMEB); and the Library Service Board.
At the local government level, each of the 21 local government areas has a Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) to oversee education within its jurisdiction.
Despite the notable progress in Adamawa’s quality of education, significant gaps in the state’s education system abound, as highlighted by a 2023 study by NEW GLOBE, a global organisation focused on improving public education systems through technology. These critical shortcomings in learning also align with UNICEF statistics in 2021, which indicate that only 10% of primary-school pupils in Adamawa possess basic literacy skills, while a staggering 92% struggle with fundamental math problems.
Moreover, Adamawa grapples with the widespread challenge of out-of-school children. As of 2022, more than 437,000 children in the state were not enrolled in school, according to UNESCO.
The MTSS was developed to address these systemic challenges. But its implementation has faced delay due to limited quality-assurance mechanisms, inadequate resources and insufficient personnel.
A recent Prime Progress report explored the objectives of the MTSS, highlighting the gender disparities hindering girls’ access to quality education in Adamawa State communities.
The Gender-Responsive Education Sector Plan, or GRESP, targets gender equality in Nigerian education, thereby creating a more inclusive learning environment for girls and boys. However, GRESP has yet to be fully integrated into the MTSS, thereby leaving a huge gap.
In September 2024, this reporter visited the Adamawa State Planning Commission, which oversees all state plans and policy documents. Acknowledging the relevance of the MTSS, Mary Paninga, the executive secretary of the commission, said that the implementation of the scheme depended on the Ministry for Education and Human Capital Development.
“Our [goal] is to see that plans are formulated based on research and what have you. Once the policies are rolled out, the state planning commission monitors the implementation of these policies to ensure that it brings the desired output, impacting the lives of people,” she told this reporter.
Paninga added that while the Commission is responsible for monitoring implementation, agencies under the Ministry for Education and Human Capital Development, which also share responsibility, haven’t fully grasped policy implementation details. And this constrains the MTSS’s effective implementation.
“That’s why we are now planning a collaborative workshop to bring them together on the implementation of policies,” Paninga explained.
The MTSS document showed that a 4-day training, facilitated by the United Agency for International Development (USAID) State2State project, was conducted from August 2nd to 5th, 2022, to support the development and implementation of the initiative. Among the participants at the workshop was Mary Paninga, who represented the Adamawa State Planning Commission, including other stakeholders from the education ministry.
For all its promise, the objectives of the MTSS document have been largely hampered by ineffective implementation. With the MTSS now in its second year of its 3-year schedule, Paninga reckons that this delay is due in part to the absence of an orientation workshop for both the Ministry of Education and the Human Capital Development. collaborative workshops, as mentioned by Paninga, should have been initiated earlier alongside the Ministry for Education and Human Capital Development to effectively support the implementing agencies.
Considering these shortcomings, experts recommend that agencies within the purview of the Ministry of Education, including the Adamawa State Planning Commission, ramp up implementation of the MTSS to provide complete educational opportunities, especially for the girl child in Adamawa.
Umar Garba Pela, commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, bemoaned the MTSS’s ineffective implementation and the lack of GRESP integration, although he hinted at an all-encompassing education sector policy currently being developed by the ministry that would integrate GRESP.
“[With the recent Education Sector Policy draft], it is expected for all the subsystems within the education sector that the Education Policy will end up marrying everyone and be able to chart a direction for every other sub-system policy within,” Pela said to this reporter in September 2024, referring to the newly developed State Policy on Education. “We are done with the validation meeting and every player in the education sector was there. Even the [education development] partners have agreed that it’s going to be the first of its kind in the country.”
The validation meeting that Pela referred to was held on September 23, 2024, at the Adamawa State Government House Banquet Hall in Yola. It was aimed at streamlining operations between the Adamawa State Ministry for Education and the Human Capital Development and the Centre for Advocacy Transparency and Accountability Initiative (CATAI), the latter being an NGO.
Media reports indicate that the education policy, developed by CATAI with support from the Malala Fund, will enhance educational outcomes in Adamawa through robust coordination, equitable access, and strategic implementation.
While the new policy promises to completely address gender issues, it remains to be seen how strategic plans such as the MTSS will align with this framework. For girls in Adamawa, the hope lies in sustainable funding for GRESP, robust monitoring and evaluation systems, capacity building for education personnel and inclusive planning involving all stakeholders.
This report was published with collaborative support from ImpactHouse Centre for Development Communication and System Strategy and Policy Lab (SSPL).
