Every Child Counts

Every Child Counts is the name given to a series of public school education reforms in Kwara, Nigeria. In a bid to resuscitate public education in its state, the Kwara State Government under the leadership of Governor Bukola Saraki introduced a package of extensive reforms in the education sector. These reforms are also called the Education Charter for Kwara State, and were designed to put "children at the heart of education" in the state.

Prior to the introduction of the reforms, public education was in dire straits in Kwara, as in many states in Nigeria. The quality of instruction in public schools was abysmally low. Enrollment in public schools dwindled, as parents (including the very poor) only took their wards to public schools when they could not afford the fee-paying private schools. Beginning from 2007, however, efforts were taken by the Kwara State Government to reverse the slide.

With strong political support from the state governor, the Kwara State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Bolaji Abdullahi, introduced some interventions that would redefine the education landscape in the state. To incentivize and track learning in public schools, the state government decided that a benchmark ought to be created to measure the progress of children in public schools. The state also recognized that in order to have greater involvement and buy-in from the parents and guardians of the school children, there was a need for an accountability mechanism to help them monitor the progress of their children.

To determine the capacity of teachers to impart knowledge on their pupils, a test based on grade 4 curriculum was administered to the politically powerful primary school teachers in Kwara public schools. The majority of the teachers failed the test. As a result, massive training was held for all the teachers and teaching manuals were developed to guide the teachers. After discovering that most pupils lack basic literacy and numeracy skills, the state government also decided to reduce the number of subjects taught to students to ensure that more emphasis is placed on the ability of the pupils to read and write as well as undertake basic sums. Benchmarks were created for the evaluation of the new curriculum which focuses on literacy and numeracy. These were distributed to the teachers and the parents.

The Kwara State Every Child Counts education reform is aimed at providing quality education in public schools in the state. As enunciated by the state government, the reform revolves around answering the following questions:

Based on a review of the situation on the ground and to ensure that proper learning is taking place in its public schools, the state government build the reform around four pillars. These are:

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