[MY POST ON @SchoolofData BLOG]: BREAKING THE KNOWLEDGE BARRIER: THE #OpenData PARTY IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

If the only news you have been watching or listening to about Northern Nigeria is of the Boko Haram violence in that region of Nigeria, then you need to know that other news exist, like the non-government organizations and media, that are interested in using the state and federal government budget data in monitoring service delivery, and making sure funds promised by government reach the community it was meant for.

This time around, the #OpenData party moved from the Nigeria Capital – Abuja to Gusau, Zamfara and was held at the Zamfara Zakat and Endowment Board Hall between Thursday, 25 and Friday, 26, 2014. With 40 participant all set for this budget data expedition, participants included the state Budget Monitoring Group (A coalition of NGOs in Zamfara) coordinated by the DFID (Development for International Development) State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI),other international NGOs such as Society for Family Health (SFH), Save the Children, amongst others.

Group picture of participants at the #OpenData Party in Zamfara

But how do you teach data and its use in a less-technology savvy region? We had to de-mystify teaching data to this community, by engaging in traditional visualization and scraping – which means the use of paper artworks in visualizing the data we already made available on the Education Budget Tracker. “I never believed we could visualize the education budget data of the federal government as easy as what was on the wall” exclaimed Ahmed Ibrahim of SAVI

Visualization of the Education Budget for Federal Schools in Zamfara

As budgets have become a holy grail especially with state government in Nigeria, of most importance to the participants on the first day, was how to find budget data, and processes involved in tracking if services were really delivered, as promised in the budget. Finding the budget data of the state has been a little bit hectic, but with much advocacy, the government has been able to release dataset on the education and health sector. So what have been the challenges of the NGOs in tracking or using this data, as they have been engaged in budget tracking for a while now?

Challenges of Budget Tracking Highlighted by participants

“Well, it is important to note that getting the government to release the data took us some time and rigorous advocacy, added to the fact that we ourselves needed training on analysis, and telling stories out of the budget data” explained Joels Terks Abaver of the Christian Association of Non Indigenes. During one of the break out session, access to budget information and training on how to use this budget data became a prominent challenge in the resolution of the several groups.

The second day took participants through the data pipelines, while running an expedition on the available education and health sector budget data that was presented on the first day. Alas! We found out a big challenge on this budget data – it was not location specific! How does one track a budget data that does not answer the question of where? When involved in budget tracking, it is important to have a description data that states where exactly the funds will go. An example is Construction of Borehole water pump in Kaura Namoda LGA Primary School, or we include the budget of Kaura Namoda LGA Primary School as a subtitle in the budget document.

Taking participants through the data pipelines and how it relates to the Monitoring and Evaluation System

In communities like this, it is important to note that soft skills are needed to be taught – , like having 80% of the participants not knowing why excel spreadsheets are been used for budget data; like 70% of participants not knowing there is a Google spreadsheet that works like Microsoft Excel; like all participants not even knowing where to get the Nigeria Budget data and not knowing what Open Data means. Well moving through the school of data through the Open Data Party in this part of the world, as changed that notion.”It was an interesting and educative 2-day event taking us through the budget cycle and how budget data relates to tracking” Babangida Ummar, the Chairman of the Budget Working Group said.

Going forward, this group of NGO and journalist has decided to join trusted sources that will be monitoring service delivery of four education institutions in the state, using the Education Budget Tracker. It was an exciting 2-day as we now hope to have a monthly engagement with this working group, as a renewed effort in ensuring service delivery in the education sector. Wondering where the next data party will happen? We are going to the South – South of Nigeria in the month of October – Calabar to be precise, and on the last day of the month, we will be rocking Abuja!

- See more at: http://schoolofdata.org/2014/10/01/breaking-the-knowledge-barrier-the-opendata-party-in-northern-nigeria/#sthash.sbEvoBaa.dpuf

STRUGGLING WITH THE FUTURE: MY FIRST ALMA MATA

When a crisis hits a vast institution it can seem reasonable to say that the task of handling the crisis falls mainly to the institution itself. It must regroup and survive, or else fail and collapse. But things change when there is evidence of criminal activity and of efforts to hide it. At that point it becomes urgent for everybody including good people inside the institution, to let daylight in and expose wrongdoing without hesitation to outside authorities.

All that might seem obvious, but for some of those at the helm of affairs of Nigeria's primary education system for three decades now,  a call to order has yet to be made. Instead of fully accepting mismanagement of that sector, they keep shifting blames on one another.

As worrisome as it may be, that Nigeria still spend less than 9% of her annual budget on education - the mainstay of an economy, the share for primary education expenditure remains at 36%, which is much lower than that accross the continent- 48%. As at 2008, the total primary classrooms was 319,590, while total primary schools was 54,434 and total school teachers at 586,930. What does these figures tell us ? an average of 10 teachers per school, average of 70 primary schools in each local government area. The latter seem encouraging, however the distribution might be skewed, and in this part of the world, the large numbers of classrooms wouldn't matter, it is the impact those four walls will have on the pupils that pass through it, this is worsened by the "mushroom" schools, also called private primary schools that  has taken over the country.

A Primary School with their teachers in Nigeria

According to the World Bank Data, Nigeria primary education witnesses a decline in % net enrollment of pupils, with 65% in 2007 and 58% in 2010. One might ask, why the decline? In neighbouring Benin, 89% enrolled in 2008 compared to 94% in 2010, Ghana also is encouraging its primary education sector growing from 72% in 2007 to 84% in 2011. Despite the incentives been given to lure children into school, the number seems to be decreasing. However, in as much as education isn't free in Nigeria at this primary level, parents will still have an excuse of not sending their wards to school. It is good to know that some states like Imo, Ogun has started thinking in this direction- the northern governors are  should take  cue from this development.

Nevertheless, as 100% enrollment and free primary education might sound sexy, the quality of knowledge acquired from this institutions should be at par with the numbers. One might ask? Where does quality starts? The number of trained teachers in these primary schools in Nigeria still hangs at 66% in 2010, and when compared to other African countries such as Kenya with an average of 98% between 2009 and 2007; Rwanda with an average of 95% for years now; Togo, one of our neighbouring countries that in 2007 has 15% now has 77% of trained teachers in 2010. Between 2007 and 2011, Burundi and Tanzania has averaged 89% and 100% respectively of trained teachers in their primary schools. Can one give what he doesn't have? It's is quite obvious that priority should be given to the re-training of primary school teachers in Nigeria.

Nevertheless, as the NERDC (Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council) introduces the new curriculum ( an headache for the three tiers of schooling in Nigeria) for primary schooling in Nigeria, the institution that is responsible for training of teachers, should be strengthened with qualifiied trainers. When an institution needs cleansing, a times it should be revamped! To put it kindly, whoever has upheld those curriculum for the past decades must be out of touch with reality that is now catching up with the education ministry.

While universal primary education is important (Togo, Burundi, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, and Tanzania have achieved or/are nearing the goal -MDG reports 2011), much value will be added through quality education. When  a country wants to become an economic power in the near future, it is not by "time travel", it builds capacity of her human resources!