PERL Engage Journalists on Implementation of Partnership Fund
By Alex Uangbaoje,Kaduna
The Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), on Wednesday engaged some members of the media in Kaduna state on their role in implementing partnership funds for education in the state.
Speaking at the opening of the two-day training meeting, Istifanus Akau, who represented the State Lead of PERL in Kaduna, Abel Adejor, said it became imperative for media to come in because most donor agencies fund were poorly implemented.
According to him, “there are good number of funded programs being implemented in Kaduna state, and some of them are done very poorly and very improperly.
“The issue of poor teachers quality and low involvement of non-state actors, like Schools Based Management Committee (SBMC), Parents Teachers Association ((PTA), Media and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) were not carried along and that caused a serious setback. This is while government brought us in to help in engaging the problems.”
Istifanus, said the media engagement is aimed at strengthening the understanding of media on Education Policies and Practices towards building public confidence and trust on the school system in Kaduna State.
He added, “it will also help leverage on existing media platforms to increase public awareness on education policies and programs in the state.”
PERL is a five-year Public-Sector Accountability and Governance programme funded by the UK’s Department for International Development. PERL is working to reform how governments organise their core business of making, implementing, tracking and accounting for policies, plans and budgets used in delivering public goods (economic stability and an enabling environment for private enterprise to promote growth and reduce poverty) and services to the citizenry, and how citizens themselves engage with these processes.
He explained that, PERL facilitated series of engagements and reflections with non-state actors (SBMCs, PTAs, CSOs and media) across the 23 LGAs of the State, the engagements targeted at identifying policy and advocacy issues driven towards inclusion into the State Education Policy.
“The issues identified were further discussed with citizens’ groups in a Public Policy Dialogue facilitated across 23 LGAs of the State. The State education policy has been developed and validated alongside Education Strategic Plan and Quality Assurance Policy with inputs from SBMCs, PTAs, CSOs and other critical stakeholders in the sector.
“In line with the global movement of bringing together media engagement and development, PERL is aimed at working to revive community participation in school improvement using the existing SBMCs and PTAs structures.
“It is important to crown these achievements by consolidating the community contributions and media in Kaduna state. By so doing, strengthening their awareness and understanding on government reforms (policy and programs), ability to build confidence and trust in the school system and thereby leveraging on existing media platforms in the state.
