THE USE OF DATA IN POLICY-MAKING IN NIGERIA'S EDUCATIONAL SECTOR: IMPLICATIONS FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Policy making simply denotes the use of resources to meet public concern. Suffice to say that the act of policy making is an act of political compromise among policy makers. Policy making is a tool to direct the course of educational system of any country towards achieving desired ends. If wrong policies are made in directing the course of education, the result will be educational maladministration which will have adverse effects on the learners with long term implication for national development. It is therefore not a surprise that developed countries of the world are very careful in making sure that educational policies are guided by relevant data. However, developing countries are lagging behind in the use of data-driven for policy making as far as educational sector is concerned. Using public choice theory as an explanatory tool, with secondary data gathering techniques, the paper finds that policies on education are hardly based on data, hence educational policies have not been able to deliver the goal of development as data that are necessary to guide policy making on education are hardly gathered and used.