Training & Research

National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Nigeria > Departments > Training & Research
Background
The Training and Research department of the Institute was born with the establishment of the Institute in 1992. The capacity building mandate of the Institute resides in the department. That is to say, the department is the hub of the Institute as it anchors its training and research activities.
It is headed by a well experienced Ph.D holder in Educational Administration and Planning. The department, in fulfilling the mandate of the Institute relies on the expertise of its professional and administrative staff.
The professional staff of the department have had (and continually have) their capacity built to cope with the globalized cutting edge demands of skill training through participatory, interactive and experiential approaches which make the Institute stand out prominently. The Institute’s networking, partnership and collaboration with international organizations such as World Bank, Commonwealth of Learning, UNICEF, DFID and, recently UNIDO find expression in the activities of the Training and Research department.
Organogram
The department has four units namely: Planning and Statistics, Research and Policy, Administration and Quality Assurance and Special projects.
Role/function/services
The principal function of the department is capacity building of education sector planners and managers. By education sector planners and managers, we mean education officers who are not directly teaching single subjects in schools. Even at that, teachers are also involved in classroom management which falls within our mandate. This is done through training and re-training, information dissemination and research. The department comes up with Annual Training Programmes which are reviewed from time to time. We also make provision for demand-driven training programmes where the annual programmes fail to meet the needs of our clientele.
Federal and State Ministries of Education (MoEs), Tertiary educational institutions, State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), Teaching Service Commissions (TSCs) etc, constitute our direct clientele. Our indirect clients include managers, administrators and planners in tertiary institutions, directors, planners, supervisors, inspectors, monitoring officers, principal and vice principals of secondary schools, head teachers of primary schools and their assistants, heads of departments and units of education ministries, departments and parastatals.
The department has of recent, launched her Annual Training Programme (ATP), a nine month diploma and certificate programme in Educational Planning and Management. The department is much into publications. Publication of books, journals, newsletters and bulletins is an integral part of the culture of the department.
The Institute, through the department has since been involved in Strategic Education Sector Planning (SESP) and Strategic Education Sector Operational Planning (SESOP) in 29 States of Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja in collaboration with UNICEF and EDSI.
The department is comprised of 30 academic staff including the Director-General and Head of Training and Research, 11 administrative staff, 10 technical staff and 4 clerical staff. The organogram, staff profile and table of sample training programmes are presented.