LEARNigeria Northern Stakeholder Roundtable Meeting – May 2017

LEARNigeria is a citizen-led household survey of learning in Nigeria. An acronym for “Let’s Engage, Assess & Report Nigeria”, the programme is aimed at generating evidence on the foundational numeracy and literacy skills of Nigerian children. The data generated will be used to strengthen education policy making and equip a wide array of education sector stakeholders with information to improve learning outcomes in Nigeria.

During the Technical Workshop that held in March 2017, Mr. Jamil Ango (Partnership Development Officer, LEARNigeria) spoke on building partnerships at the different levels, and maintaining these relationships. Following from this, a roundtable meeting with northern stakeholders was organised, considering that some of the scale-up states – Kano, Taraba, and Plateau – are located in the northern region of the country.

The purpose of this meeting was to engage the support of the government officials in these states, bringing them on board as official partners. On this note, the LEARNigeria team discussed with key officials about the LEARNigeria programme, highlighting the pilot phase, the plan for the scale-up, and the benefits of this programme to the Nigerian child.

In attendance were Education Commissioners and Permanent Secretaries from the northern part of Nigeria, as well as experts from the National Population Commission, National Bureau of Statistics, and Federal Ministry of Education.

At the end of the meeting, these government officials expressed excitement about the project. Citing this as a significant channel to improve the quality of learning, these stakeholders guaranteed the team their support for the scale-up phase of LEARNigeria.