NAN-H-93
Education
By Kate Obande
Abuja, Jan.11, 2017 (NAN) The World Bank says it will conduct a post review on the implementation of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) fund, later in the year to ensure accountability.
Dr Tunde Adekola, Senior Education Specialist, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
NAN reports that the 100 million dollars GPE fund was given as grant to the Nigerian government to eradicate illiteracy and boost girl-child education.
The project is to be implemented in five northern states of the country, namely: Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Sokoto and Kaduna states and it is being implemented by the Nigeria Partnership in Education Project (NIPEP).
Adekola explained that the process of execution had to be monitored effectively to ensure that the set goals were achieved.
“The essence of the post review is to monitor and check the project because it is not everything that they do that they will report to the bank.
“The programme is to strengthen the education system so that after they do what they plan to do, the bank will now go round to check and see if they have followed the process, if they have been able to achieve their aim.
“And most importantly, to check if they are being transparent in their dealings with all the documents in place.’’
He explained that accountability, transparency and data collection was key to development in the country.
Adekola called on the media to promote accountability in the cause of their jobs by demanding for documents on projects being implemented either by government or donour agencies.
Commenting on the girl child education programme, he said that there should be correlation between resources and results.
According to him, where money has been provided to boost girl child education, results must be shown.
The World Bank chief told NAN that most agencies could not account for their achievements because they did not have data, “this is wrong and it should be corrected”.
He called on Nigerians to change their orientation on “the cry of no money anytime it is time to carry out a project” rather they should account for the previous money given to them.
“ We need a dynamic orientation in Nigeria, when there is a problem, what people talk about is we need more money, rather, what we should be talking about is, we need more result.
“For example if you can say with the money I have, these are the number of girls that we were able to put in school, then you are making a case that if I give you more money, you can achieve more.
“If you go to a school and ask , what is your problem, they will say it is money. Money cannot be the problem, it is used to solve problems.
“The problem should be that girls are not coming to school or girls are not learning.’’(NAN)
KTE/BOLA/MO
==========Edited by Bola Akingbehin/Morayo Omolade