Tuesday, July 26, 2011

help....... or not

The Ministry of Education in Nasarawa started the preparations for the new strategic plan, the State Educational Sector Plan (SESP) and the State Educational Sector Operational Plan (SESOP). UNICEF is asking different states to do this planning so they have an out-line on which they can base their funding to the states on and to get insight on where different states need to build capacity.
A few weeks ago a colleague of mine asked me if I was willing to join the group to plan this SESP, and I said; ‘yes, of course, whenever I can do something to make education better I will do.’ So a month past without any sign. Then I started asking what was going on and if I could do something already. The director of planning and information told me he would tell me if I would be able to help. Okay so again a few weeks past and I knew already that the time span of this project was till the end of November. So I started asking again how they were thinking of doing all the research needed for the programme before November if they didn’t even start forming a research team yet.
We have to wait till after the next workshop. I was like why would UNICEF plan two workshops 2 months apart from each other and not expect anything to happen in between? But now it is a week before the second workshop and they have a lot to do. They have to form a research group and do a baseline analysis on the education in Nasarawa. Yesterday I was invited to be at the opening of this week; to know more about the process and activities. I was allowed to observe, so I did. And during my observations I saw things that I wanted to question. So I did Question the thing after the workshop in a one-to-one chat with a guy from the federal ministry. He did find my questions reasonable and put them there were they belong, the director of planning and information.
Today on the second day of this workshop, I settled myself in the back of the room just like yesterday and started working on my laptop while waiting for everybody to come in. O yeah one thing that was mentioned yesterday was, Be Rigour (time and deadlines are there to be worked with) In other words be on time and deliver results on time!
Not to day! After agreeing on to start at 9 o’clock this morning, only 4 participants and no organization was on time! Is this leading for the rest of the programme? But I was there five minutes past 9 and I was there till 10 minutes before 10. I was told my presence was not needed anymore. Yesterday I should have seen enough to understand the process and activities. So with other words, the director of planning and information didn’t want me around during de SWOT-analysis. Am I to critical?

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