The Federal Ministry of Education has launched the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI), a centralised data system that encompasses all the schools and students in the nation, from basic to tertiary institutions.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa who chaired the unveiling ceremony in Abuja on Thursday stated that the database would be the single source of truth for education in Nigeria.
Alausa noted that NEDI would help the government at both federal and state levels plan, budget better and channel investment to where it is needed the most. It would also help development partners realign their priorities.
The Minister lamented that 80% of investment done by development partners in the last 10 years were in two geopolitical zones of the nation. However, those zones have the lowest school enrollment.
He therefore stated that going forward, there would be targeted investments including infrastructure, capacity development and the development partners provide aligned support with verified national priorities.
He also disclosed that with NEDI, there would be a National Learner Identity Number (NLIN) with every learner assigned a unique education ID tied to their National Identification Number (NIN) and linked to their school. With this, the Ministry would know if the child is enrolled and making progress or dropped out.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad said one of the major challenges in the educational sector for many years had been the data collection.
“Different agencies, institutions, examination bodies, development partners, departments, agencies generate and hold valuable educational data, but this data set often exists in silos. This has made it difficult to obtain a comprehensive, reliable, and timely picture of the educational sector.
“This is precisely the gap that NEDI has been established to address. The Nigerian Educational Data Initiative, NEDI, is designed to provide a unified national educational data platform that brings together data from basic education, secondary education, technical and vocational education, technical education, examinations, admissions, scholarships, students’ funding, graduate outcomes, and other relevant sources.
“The ultimate goal is to build a reliable, transparent, and integrated educational data ecosystem that supports planning, accountability, policy formation, and decision-making. NETI is not merely an ICT project. It is a national reform instrument”, she said.
On her part, Chief of Education at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Vanessa Lee congratulated the government of Nigeria on the development and pledged the organisation’s unwavering support.
