54997 No. 130 March 1999 Nigeria : Consultations for Improved Primary Education Background The World Bank-assisted Nigeria Primary Education Project aims at assisting the Government of Nigeria to improve the quality of the subsector through the supply of instructional materials, upgrading of infrastructural facilities, enhancing teachers' competence, facilitating school management, inspection, planning and data gathering. This is being achieved by involving stakeholders at all levels in the process of primary school improvement. The National Primary Education Commission (NPEC) which manages a National Primary Education Fund and oversees the quality of primary education is responsible for implementing the project. In order to identify ways of improving primary education services and developing future policy, the NPEC decided to obtain the views of users and providers of current services and their suggestions for improvement by commissioning consultative surveys. Objectives The objectives of the consultations were to: (a) assess expectations and levels of satisfaction with primary education on the part of service users and providers (parents, teachers, educational administrators, etc.); (b) investigate perceived constraints to the improvement of service provision and assess suggestions of the various stakeholders for improving services, together with the potential and willingness to realize them; (c) identify and describe existing innovative approaches to improve performance in the delivery of social services through community participation, targeting, client involvement, fiscal decentralization or other mechanisms; and (d) develop recommendations for the development of pilot initiatives to test or replicate these approaches to be implemented within the framework of the on-going Primary Education Project. Design and methods for consultations The consultations were undertaken in fifty-four primary schools and communities across Nigeria. To achieve a representative sample of schools, two rural and one urban Local Government Area (LGA) were selected from each of Nigeria's six zones. Within each of the sampled LGAs, three schools were selected to represent different levels of community accessibility. Both qualitative and quantitative methods such as semi-structured interviewing, focus-group discussions, participant observation and brief questionnaires were used. Stakeholders consulted included parents, pupils, teachers and headteachers, community leaders, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members and officers, educational administrators and supervisors. Main findings The school environment was found to be far from conducive to learning, pupil safety, security and health. Classroom space was inadequate, meaning that many children are either instructed in the open air or share classrooms with up to four other classes. As well as being insufficient in numbers, classrooms are generally in a poor state of repair. There is little or no funding to meet maintenance or running costs, or to obtain supplies of instructional materials and other educational inputs. Schools lack offices, desks and other furniture, and recreational facilities, and have few or no toilet facilities. Teacher effectiveness and student learning were found to be further limited by the inadequate supply of materials, frequent changes in recommended textbooks, the current textbook lending policy, and the late supply of record books. Most teachers and headteachers were committed to their vocation. However, extremely low remuneration, poor working conditions, and inadequate facilities have inevitably eroded motivation and satisfaction. Many teachers did not have the minimum qualification for primary school teaching. In some areas, there were gender imbalances in staff cadres, reflected in the shortages of female teachers in much of the north of the country and of male teachers in parts of the south. Teaching was further disrupted by frequent and wholesale staff transfers. All of these factors have contributed to the declining prestige and status of teaching as a profession. Regional imbalances in enrollments were found, with lower enrollment in the northern compared to southern zones, particularly with respect to female pupils. Attendance levels vary considerably between schools, and are often low in rural areas, especially during the farming season and on market days. The transfer of management of the federal allocation for teachers' salaries and operational cost from LGAs to the NPEC and the State Primary Education Boards (SPEBs) had largely succeeded in ensuring that teachers' salaries are paid. Nevertheless, the fact that Education Secretaries are responsible to SPEBs, rather than to the local councils which appoint them, has also often resulted in tensions between the LGA and SPEBs, conflicting pressures on the Education Secretaries, and a perception on the part of the local government that they are not meaningfully involved in the management of the schools and in the resources made available for their areas. SPEBs have also taken over a number of roles (e.g. for supplies and maintenance) originally envisaged as the responsibility of Local Government. Little information is made available to the public regarding the budget and expenditure of Local Government Education Authorities ( LGEAs). The supervision of primary schools is sometimes irregular and often inadequate. Headmasters have no funds to respond to minor maintenance problems or to purchase supplies and incidentals. Many of the problems identified stem from the inadequacy of funding for primary education. Sufficient resources are still not being made available to build and maintain the necessary infrastructure, provide essential educational materials, or even to pay teachers a living wage. The consultations revealed a varying, but generally high, level of involvement in local primary schools by groups such as PTAs, school committees, community-based organizations (CBOs), and individual community members. Such local actors make a substantial contribution to their schools through the construction of school buildings, repairs and maintenance, and the provision of furniture and instructional materials. Many communities also participate in promoting the enrollment and attendance of pupils, and have an input, although limited, into the management of schools. However, PTAs, school councils and CBOs are faced with multiple and frequently overwhelming demands, and their role vis à vis other stakeholders in the management of primary education is not well-defined. In some cases, PTAs suffer from weak accountability and transparency. Recommendations The findings of the zonal teams were discussed in six zonal workshops in February 1998, which brought together the researchers; representatives of parents, teachers and PTAs, LGEA, SPEB and NPEC officials, and other concerned parties. These meetings were followed by a national technical synthesis workshop for researchers, reviewers and representatives of NPEC held in Kaduna in March 1998. Recommendations emerged from the consultations and workshops in the areas of community participation, staff conditions and training, infrastructure and facilities, instructional materials, enrollment and attendance, structure and management of primary education, and funding for primary education (summarized in table). Next steps Consultative policy document: The findings of the consultations are being drawn together with those of a school-level expenditure review to draft a policy brief, Nigerian Primary Education in the 21st Century. This document will be developed through consultations around the country with key stakeholders (e.g. LGEAs, SPEBs, the NPEC, PTAs, NGOs, donor representatives, etc.). Pilot community initiatives: A new pilot sub-component to support community initiatives is to be added to the project. This will channel small grants to communities to encourage and support involvement in school management and improvement. Progress will be assessed through a small-scale action research project which will follow-up a sample of schools involved in the pilot consultations. If successful, the pilots could be expanded or used as a basis for further developments in educational policy and implementation. Table: Summary of findings and recommendations Issue Recommendations Responsibility 1. Community participation Community-based Create a matching grant facility to NPEC organizations are overtaxed support community-based and by multiple demands The PTA initiatives NPEC/SPEB/LGEA roles and expectations of community-based Involve PTAs more formally in NPEC organizations are unclear The school management accountability and NPEC/LGEAs/PTAs/ transparency of some PTAs is Implement a pilot scheme for CBOs/Schools sometimes weak developing such new approaches to community involvement in primary education Build capacity of PTAs and other CBOs and foster them where they do not exist 2. Staff conditions and training Salaries and benefits of teachers Federal and State Teachers not paid a living should be increased Ministries of wage and are poorly Education motivated Review teachers' training programs NPEC Many teachers are under- qualified Provide in-service training Teacher training opportunities institutes Existing training equips teachers inadequately for the Improve design and NPEC/SPEBs conditions which they face appropriateness of distance MoEs/ SPEBs Gender imbalance in numbers learning courses of teachers (insufficient women in north, men in Develop incentive program to south) address gender imbalance Frequent and wholesale Implement minimum posting transfers disrupt teaching guidelines 3. Infrastructure and facilities Provide LGEA with funds for NPEC/SPEB Classroom space and other construction, repairs and facilities grossly inadequate furnishing NPEC/SPEB Dilapidated state of buildings Entrust headmaster/PTA with NPEC/SPEB funds for minor repairs Inadequate furnishings Review current maintenance arrangements and conduct a maintenance needs assessment 4. Instructional materials Very few textbooks and Give LGEA responsibility for NPEC/SPEB instructional materials acquisition and distribution of available in schools instructional materials (excluding MoE/SPEB textbooks) Frequent changes in NPEC recommended textbooks Use recommended texts for at least four years Parents find current textbook- hire policy unacceptable Develop options for the provision of textbooks through loan or Late supply of record books purchase in consultation with parents 5. Enrollment, attendance and retention Flexible scheduling of school NPEC Regional imbalances in terms and attendance enrollment especially female MoEs enrollment Community mobilization to promote enrollment, attendance PTAs/ Irregular attendance, and retention through advocacy especially in rural areas programs School Cmttees. 6. Structure and management of primary education Education secretaries to brief LG LGEA Secretaries Council regularly on plans, Limited LGA input to expenditures and achievements LG Secretary management of schools, and LGEA Secretary LG Councils to ensure LGEA accountability to LG Council accounts are properly audited LGEA Secretaries/ Little information on amount Information on LGEA budgets LG Secretary or use of primary education and expenditures should be made funds available to schools or available to the general public the public Create an imprest account under No funds available to the control of headmasters, in headmaster consultation with PTA SPEB Irregular and inadequate Training and means of transport supervision of schools for supervisors 7. Funding Funding is inadequate for Increase in per capita enrollment Federal government staff, capital development, allocation maintenance, and running costs Review and formalize cost-sharing arrangements among government agencies and other stakeholders Eileen Nkwanga is Task Manager for the Primary Education Project and Cluster Leader for Nigeria Education Operations. Sudharshan Canagarajah task managed the consultations. A fuller account of the consultations can be found in. Paul A. Francis with S.P.I. Agi, S. Ogoh Alubo, Hawa A. Biu, A.G. Daramola, Uchenna M. Nzewi, and D.J. Shehu, Hard Lessons: Primary Schools, Community and Social Capital in Nigeria, Technical Paper No. 420, October, 1998, World Bank, Washington, D.C.