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Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN)

Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) was one of a set of UK Aid-funded State Level Programmes (SLPs)in Nigeria, working in governance, accountability and the delivery of health and education services. ESSPIN started with a pilot in 2,000 schools rapidly expanding to over 16,000 schools by 2017. The £124m programme was managed by a consortium led by Cambridge Education.
Photo of Nigerian students laughing as they work together in the classroom

ESSPIN was one of a set of UK Aid-funded State Level Programmes (SLPs) in Nigeria, working in governance, accountability and the delivery of health and education services. ESSPIN started with a pilot in 2,000 schools rapidly expanding to over 16,000 schools by 2017. The £124m programme was managed by a consortium led by Cambridge Education.  

SDDirect led the inclusive education component bringing a gender and social inclusion lens to education interventions we focused on the provision of support around “girl-friendly schools” and gender-responsive curricula that empowered girls and young women. Our contribution included initiatives to engage with sub-national state governments to increase civil society participation in education planning and working with communities and their organisations to hold government to account. Our work contributed to raising understanding of the meaning and importance of inclusive education and development and adoption of state and federal level inclusive education policies. We also piloted a number of approaches to increase the number of girls transitioning from primary to secondary schools. 

 Department for International Development (DFID)'s ESSPIN supported Nigerian federal and state authorities as they work both to reform the governance of education and to improve the quality of education that children receive. Over eight and a half years, ESSPIN embedded an integrated school improvement programme at scale. The programme built the capacity of thousands of state and district staff, head teachers, teachers, civil society organisations and school-based management committee members to improve education in their primary schools. 

 Key contributions of ESPINN included: 

  • Support to federal and state ministries of education, and Local Government Education Authorities (LGEA) in formulating and operationalising policies around issues that affect children’s learning inclusion through series of political engagements, trainings, modelling, planning and budgeting, and monitoring and evaluation. 

  • Reorganisation of existing education structures and staff to achieve greater effectiveness and sustainability, encouraging synergy among all departments at states and LGEA levels. 

  • Building the capacity of communities within the state and local government systems including civil society organisations, centres for business, organisations and society, and school-based management committees

  • Support to state governments to commit their own resources to school improvement programme

Area of work this relates to

Staff working on this project