The Establishment
We seek to build adequte manpower and unlock the possibility inside every individual.
At its meeting of 12thDecember 2019, the NEDC Governing Board approved the establishment of an Education Endowment Fund (EEF) with an initial sum of NGN6,000,000,000.00 (six billion naira) for operationalizing the Fund. The EEF is intended to address the poor human development indices, high illiteracy rate and high poverty levels of the North-East, as documented in many national and international records, as well government- and non-governmental reports. For instance, according to the UNDP Human Development Report (2018), the North-East region also lags other regions in terms of overall Human Development. The broad aim of the Fund is to develop sufficient human capital in order to acquire adequate capacity for infrastructural and socio-economic development of the NE region.
THE OBJECTIVES
We were set up to resuscitate the region’s “education sector” and rebuild the human capital.
The following objectives of the NEDC-EEF are drawn from the broad goal for the Fund.
- Build Adequate Manpower for a 21st Century North East Economy.
- Sustainably improve the basic education sub-sector through the provision of requisite infrastructure, equipment, furniture, teaching and learning materials and training/retraining of teachers.
- Galvanise partners’ synergy in ensuring the delivery of qualitative learning to students.
- Support the immediate and midterm injection of multi-sector market driven skills into the region.
- Support the injection of specialized professional skills over the mid to long-term in the region that are both locally and internationally relevant.
- Contribute to peacebuilding in the region through strategic grassroot sports initiatives.
- Create a platform for networking and cross pollination of ideas by the upcoming North East Intelligentsia.
- Ensure equity in access to future opportunities by providing scholarships to less privilege students.
- Coordinate the targeting and mobilization of resources for investments in the education sector.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF BASIC EDUCATION
The programme will see that children in humanitarian situations have access to quality education.
- The six North East States have a total of 1,028 wards, 112 LGAs and 18 Senatorial Districts. In line with the desire to achieve wide and equitable coverage by the EEF in all the Member States, prospective beneficiaries of the construction and rehabilitation of schools, as well as other associated programmes to support the development of basic education, may be selected at strategic levels such as Wards, LGAs, etc.
- Construction of new schools in accessible rural areas, rehabilitation of existing prominent schools, provision of furniture, fittings, WASH and basic ICT infrastructure will form the core activities of developing the basic education.
- Sensitisation and enrolment drives on the need for education for socio economic development as well as other benefits will be carried out in communities.
- This work will be achieved by creating an enabling environment for early child education and basic education, improving quality of education, increasing demand for education and humanitarian assistance for education required under emergency.
The above strategies are expected to yield the following the outcomes:
- Out of school children in the North East access and complete quality basic education, within a safe learning environment, gaining the skills and knowledge for lifelong learning.
- Children in humanitarian situations have timely and sustained access to quality basic education services.
- Achievement of structural rehabilitation and construction of more conducive and safer educational infrastructures equipped with adequate furniture and fittings and WASH facilities.
- Teachers capacity building is associated with the development of basic education thus leading to improved teacher educational skills and technical knowledge. More teachers would have core knowledge and competencies to use proven teaching methodologies, psychosocial support and correct curriculum to deliver appropriate quality education.
- Parents and communities would have improved knowledge and commitment to contribute to enrolling children at the right age in quality learning in safe and protective school environments.
- With modest investments through the EEF, the basic education subsector will churn out more qualitative products for the secondary and tertiary subsectors, thereby lessening the burden of delivery by teachers at those levels and improving performance evaluation indices.
- Jerking up of basic education enrolment figures due to improved teaching and learning environment that matches up with trained and motivated teachers.
