The Prime Minister, Head of Government, HE Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou chaired, late yesterday afternoon in his cabinet, the session of the steering committee of the Sectoral Program for Education and Training (PSEF), an initiative that is part of the ongoing dialogue between the government and its partners involved in education and training. The meeting was held in the dawn of the finalization and implementation of the 2023 Action Plan and after the enlargement of the partners of the Common Sector Education Fund with the arrival of new members.
At the opening of the session, the participants followed four presentations on the recommendations of the Government-TFP-Civil Society sector review, the PSEF Action Plan 2023, the funding of the sectoral program for education and training and the presentation of the conclusions of the Education Summit. Following these presentations, Prime Minister Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou recalled that the government had included in the investment budget the sum of 70 billion francs for the construction of 2,531 classrooms in three (3) months.
In the summary he made at the end of the session, the Head of Government explained that the exchanges highlighted extremely important challenges in various sectors of interest. “The first challenge, he noted, is to mobilize efforts so that the PSEF Annual Action Plan 2023, which benefits from substantial funding in the national budget, is fully implemented. It is also important that the milestones provided by the Global Fund are met.” Hence the insistence of the participants on the development of a roadmap capable of mobilizing all the actors concerned.
The strengthening of decentralization with the full involvement of local authorities and their full responsibility for the implementation of educational programmes, the construction of boarding schools which must meet the standards of a living environment with certain comforts, as well as the effectiveness and collection centers in areas affected by terrorism were all topics discussed during yesterday’s session of the PSEF Steering Committee. Added to this list, according to the words of the Head of Government, are discussions on improving the coverage rate of school canteens, which is very low in Niger, and the launch of social dialogue to involve young people in decision-making processes. educational decisions.
“In general, the transformation we want from the education system must be a complete transformation. It must integrate the aspect related to access, the curriculum, but also digital training, the education of young girls and the initial and continuous training of teachers”, stressed HE Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou.
The Head of Government welcomed the positive evaluation of the ongoing planning efforts and asked for their support through monitoring and evaluation activities. Finally, he welcomed the expansion of the steering committee of the sectoral education and training program “with the arrival of local authorities to improve the effectiveness of our interventions”.
Ahead of the discussions, the Chief Ambassador of the EU Delegation to Niger HE Salvador Pinto da França, who is also the leader of the technical and financial partners in the education sector, indicated that Niger is the first and only country in the sub-region a carried out, in 2022, an assessment according to international standards of the results of primary school pupils.
“These advances are testament to the commitment of the authorities and technical teams to profoundly transform the Nigerian education system,” he said. Despite the progress made, the group leader of the sector’s technical and financial partners affirmed that it is important “to plan and implement an evaluation of the 2020-2023 transition plan in 2023 and to update the diagnosis of budget forecasts, especially in view of the country’s ambitions “.
We recall that education is set by the President of the Republic, Head of State, HE Mohamed Bazoum, as a priority on a par with the defense and security sector. This has allowed a great internal and external mobilization in favor of education in Niger.
Source: ONEP
