BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

THE Edo State Government yesterday disclosed plans to partner with the National Institute for Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA), with a view to strengthening its educational sector.

Governor Godwin Obaseki disclosed this when he met with the management of the institute, led by its Director General/ Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Lilian Salami,at Government House Benin City. Acknowledging the importance of the institute in the training of educational practitioners, Obaseki said collaborating with the institute has become necessary due to the reforms embarked upon by his administration in the educational sector.

According to him, “we intend to collaborate with NIEPA so you can help us provide the leadership and managerial skills for our educational practitioners. We don’t have the capacity and resources to tackle all the challenges, but we want to prioritise primary education, because I believe that the key problem is at the basic level.

“We have started by restructuring our State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), we are sourcing the data and people to manage our educational system at this level and we will need NIEPA’s help as we take further action in that sector” he said.

The Director General of NIEPA, Prof. Salami, stressed the need for state governments to exploit the potentials of the institute, noting that part of the problem with the nation’s educational sector was poor training of those running the educational sector including teachers adding that “we are collaborating with UNESCO to revive the educational standard of the country and other countries in the West African region.

“Our mandate is to train educational managers and administrators, conducting researches that will help in the formation of policies to improve the standard of education in this country.

And that is the more reason why state government must tap from these potentials so that our standard of education will be improved” she stated.