-By Funmi Falobi-

In order to improve the quality of education of children from low income households in Lagos, the Developing Effective Private Education Nigeria (DEEPEN) programme has brought together top government officials and stakeholders in education to a roundtable discuss. The event, which was a DEEPEN end of Programme Dissemination, held at Abeokuta, Ogun State, and was attended by top government officials and other stakeholders in education – Commissioners of Education, Budget and Planning, Permanent Secretaries, Special Advisers, Directors, CSOs and Private Sector stakeholders in the South-West region of Nigeria.

In his speech, the team leader of the DEEPEN programme, Dr. Gboyega Ilusanya emphasised on the need to address the challenge of improving education quality. “Given the rising importance of private education, the learnings of DEEPEN will help to set the agenda and structure for the intervention of states and development partners in education.”

The DEEPEN programme, which is a DFID UKAid-funded programme managed by Cambridge Education, a member of Mott MacDonald UK, was established to improve the quality of education in private schools, especially those serving children from low-income households in Lagos.

 The DEEPEN programme has, without doubt, recorded numerous successes in its attempt to establish a vibrant and dynamic market for private education in Lagos as more than 277, 000 children from across 2,500 schools have directly benefitted from DEEPEN’s interventions.

 Using a market-development approach, the DEEPEN programme continues the progress from the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN), with a particular focus on improving learning outcomes of children from low-income families.

“We believe this is a good opportunity for stakeholders to learn and better understand how to effectively manage the phenomenon of private education, particularly in schools serving children from low-income households”