KADA Edu PACT Summit 2025 – Report and Reflections

Namse Peter Udosen (Phd)

Theme: Strategic Visioning for Educational Transformation: Developing a Kaduna State Education Model

The KADA Edu PACT Summit, jointly organized by the Kaduna State Government and the British High Commission, brought together stakeholders for a three-day engagement focused on shaping a new vision for education in Kaduna State. The Summit aimed to explore strategic approaches to transform education through policy, research, and the implementation of transformative practices.

I participated as a panelist in the session on Foundational Literacy and Basic Education, where I presented some of the grassroots literacy work I’ve been involved with—especially the storytelling-based initiatives at schools,  Read-A-Create, and Narayi Community Centre. I highlighted the pedagogical power of storytelling as a culturally grounded and emotionally engaging pathway to build foundational literacy among young learners.

Additionally, I contributed to the breakout sessions on Basic Education, where several policy-level and programmatic interventions were discussed.

While the Summit brought much-needed attention to critical educational issues in Kaduna State, it was evident that many of the conversations lacked the rigour of deconstruction and critical inquiry required to drive genuine systemic change. Discussions often remained on the surface—relying on well-rehearsed policy frameworks and donor-aligned narratives—without interrogating the structural, historical, and ideological underpinnings of the educational challenges in the region. There were many buzz words such as "Quality Education ", "Supervision", "educated", "literacy " that flew around without a sound theoretical deconstruction. There is a need to fix the underlying ideologies behind the words and define them within local and relevant contexts. The FCDO has through the PLANE project made considerable financial and technical support to foundational education in Nigeria but without addressing the foundational colonial issues in education nothing much would be achieved. Both parties nee to unlearn Dependency narratives.

Similarly, foundational literacy was discussed mostly in terms of international benchmarks and quantitative assessments, with minimal engagement with indigenous knowledge systems, language politics, or the cultural dimensions of learning. My attempt to foreground storytelling as a decolonial and contextually relevant pedagogy felt somewhat isolated in an environment that privileged data-driven interventions over lived experience and qualitative impact.  The discussion were mainly from a classroom perspective. Solutions such as Jolly Phonics and TaRL were discussed but there was not much conversation, although it was raised, on the teacher training curriculum. Teacher quality and renumeration were essentially glossed over.

The safeguarding presentation was insightful and as someone who has been trained in safeguarding and taught in the UK where safeguarding was king,  I hoped for a deeper conversation. From the body language of many participants, there is a need for cultural conversations on corporal punishment and children's rights. The impression I got was that teachers and parents feel children's safeguarding is an attempt to empower children to be "unruly".

The presentation on out-of-school children provided insights into the different cultural nuances to be cond. For example, while out-of-school children were a prominent theme, there was little effort to critically examine the socio-economic and political conditions that perpetuate exclusion. The influence of colonial education legacies, religious tensions, and the disconnect between formal schooling and local epistemologies were not given the attention they deserve. There seemed to be a focus on getting them into schools more than finding functional solutions. My Phd research was focused on school mapping principles and non-formal education in North-West Nigeria. Based on my findings there is need for a multiple intervention approach.

Technical and Vocational Education as a part of non-formal education should be solution to provide education as opposed to mere schooling for out of school children and others who struggle in formal school systems. The skills alignment with market demands provided insights on thinking out of the box for education reforms and reimagination.

On the adoption of technology for education,  there is a convern about the power dynamics in the industry and how it could further widen gaps. I remember asking the Education Adviser if they considered power dynamics between the global north and south when using ODAs to influence technological innovation in education but got no response. It is vital for the UK government to examine historical power relations that have shaped educational interventions in Nigeria.

In general, the Summit’s approach to educational transformation appeared to prioritize strategic planning over philosophical reflection—a tendency that risks replicating existing gaps in educational policy. There was an overwhelming focus on scaling, replicability, and technical solutions, with limited space for grassroots voices, community educators, and children themselves to challenge dominant paradigms. This was evident in the conversations around safeguarding and banning of corporal punishment.

In conclusion, while the Summit was a commendable effort in convening stakeholders and creating a platform for dialogue, there is a pressing need for future engagements to integrate critical perspectives, decolonial inquiry, and reflective pedagogy. Without these, the vision for educational transformation in Kaduna will remain technocratic and incomplete—failing to address the deep-rooted issues that affect learners and communities across the state.