C-EMIS report use for advocacy to address out of school children in Birniwa LGA

It is vital to fully understand the reasons why children are not in school in order to overcome
the barriers. Poverty and parental illiteracy are often cited as key barriers that limit access to
education, but do not tell the full story. ESSPIN’s Community- Education Management
Information System (C-EMIS) survey illustrated a number of reasons which were either
unknown or ignored. These included issues such as communal conflicts, child abuse, distance
to school and parents preferring IQTE. The dissemination of the report prompted parents in
Birniwa LGA to use the findings to address the challenges in getting children into school.

“The results of this report are outstanding and we now have credible information on how we
can make informative advocacy fact-sheets and sensitise local communities,” said Bala Mai
Unguwa, a member of SBMC, Birniwa Special Primary School.

In July 2015, the LGA recorded an increase of 26% in the enrolment of new pupils in primary
one and ECCDE compared to the 11.6% in 2014. The LGEA Secretary declared that the
C-EMIS report helped us to identify the various reasons why we failed in the past to get
parents to send their children to school. The new advocacy strategy we adopted was built on
the recommendation from the report. We are grateful that the ESSPIN and SUBEB
collaborated to extend the survey to Birniwa LGA which has been challenged by low school
enrolment, attendance and completion rates.”

ESSPIN is now working to extend the dissemination of the report to other LGAs with a view
to influence local communities and SBMCs to conduct similar surveys. The SUBEB has
declared its intention to fund the survey in more LGAs.