Agency to train 60 education planners for IDP camps

Agency to train 60 education planners for IDP camps

Agency to train 60 education planners for IDP camps

The National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration has said that it will train 60 education planners to cater to the educational needs of school-age children in Internally Displaced Persons Camps across Nigeria.

The Director-General of the institute, Prof. Lilian Salami, said this during a briefing recently held in Abuja to announce its plan to train and deploy the planners, who would be selected from the North-East and North-Central geopolitical zones, in the IDP camps.

Noting that children in the IDP camps needed more than nutrition and good health, Salami said, “Most times, there is little emphasis on the educational needs of the children in the camps. These children were formerly in the school system and they have to continue their education, even in the camps.

“The policy makers include the state directors that are managing schools. There is supposed to be educational interventions in the IDP camps, which will be included in the annual budgets and policies of state governments.

“The state ministries of education will be able to provide teachers in the camp and provide support. Normal school life should be able to continue even in the IDP camps..

“We are not only going to look at the nutrition or health of the internally displaced persons, but we will also look at what is happening to their education. We know that as managers and school administrators, we have very great roles to play.”

The DG also said the institute, which she described as suffering from low patronage and paucity of funds, was in urgent need of restructuring.

She said, “Patronage from the private sector is very low at present. We believe that the institute needs to be restructured in order to attract more funding and attention from the state governments and the private sector. We do not mean restructuring in terms of a merger with other agencies because NIEPA is peculiar in its responsibility of building the capacity of education planners and administrators.”

Source: PunchNG