By Ijeoma Agbafo
Kaduna State has been commended for its data-driven education reforms during the launch of the Digital National Education Management Information System (D-NEMIS) and the inauguration of state coordination teams in Abuja.
The President of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Audu Amba, described Kaduna as a model for digital education governance, praising the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Chairman, Mubarak Muhammad, for promoting technology-driven reforms in the education sector.
Minister of Education, Dr Maroof Tunji Alausa, said the D-NEMIS platform would replace manual education data collection with real-time digital reporting to improve planning, resource allocation and monitoring. He disclosed that about 38 million learners had already been captured on the platform nationwide.
Alausa, however, expressed concern over the sharp decline in learner transition from primary to secondary education, attributing the gap to inadequate infrastructure and structural challenges. He said Nigeria has about 90,000 public primary schools but only 15,000 junior secondary schools.
The minister also announced that Nigeria’s first national learning assessment in five years had commenced and would be conducted every three years, adding that six digital modules had been developed to monitor learners, teachers, infrastructure, school safety and learning outcomes.
UNICEF Country Representative, Wafaa Abdelatef, said D-NEMIS would improve education planning by making every Nigerian child visible within the education system and supporting the early identification of school dropouts.
