Participants at the just concluded workshop on education
held in Port Harcourt have rated the programme high, saying the United Nations
Education Fund, (UNICEF) made invaluable contributions to  the knowledge of beneficiaries in terms of
education planning.

A Deputy Director in the Ministry of Education, Mrs Ibiso
West, noted that the knowledge acquired at the workshop would be deployed to
boost education development from the kindergarten level in the state.

Speaking to The Tide
in an exclusive interview, Mrs Ibiso West acknowledged that when you send a
child to a better school with necessary facilities put in place, as a parent,
you have made an “investment case”.

She said investing in that child means investing in the
future of the child who would tomorrow become useful to the parent and society
at large.

In a closing remark, the Director, Special projects,
Ministry of Education, Mr. Hanachor Ogbonda Hanachor, who spoke on behalf of
the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Richard Ofuru, reminded the participants that
“investment case” is their job as no other person can do it for them.

His words: “I want to tell all of us that this is our job,
nobody can do it for us. And for the fact that we have participated in this
workshop, we now know the philosophy behind it as well as the history, vision,
mission and the objectives.

At every point in time, we will certainly be called upon to
do one thing or the other to ensure that the programme succeeds.”

According to him, the infrastructure and equipment provided
in schools form 10 per cent of the work in education while human capacity
development of those who would drive the programme  has  90
per cent. He said  that if the human capacity
is properly grounded in their jobs, the objectives of the programme would be
achieved.

A UNICEF resource person, Mr George Igelegbai  who delivered lectures on “Five Programming
Principles of the United Nations “(UN) Systems,” said the participants were
sensitised on the need for a review of the state education sector plan in order
to enhance the plan based on the evidence on ground.

Mr. Igelegbai noted that it requires a thorough analysis of
the situation of education in Rivers State as at today in order to be able to
identify its area of strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to
successful, rapid and adequate development of the sector in the state with a
view to providing opportunity to replanning.

Eunice Choko-Kayode