Assessment of Success and Failure Factors in Policy Implementation on Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) Education

Abstract

Success of any government policy hinges on its execution. The Internally Displaced Persons deserve to be given reasonable consideration as enshrined in the displaced persons policy. However, many factors determine whether the desired benefits of the policy, which includes; enjoyment of equal fundamental human rights as those who are in their homes, freedom from any form of brutality and creation of conducive learning environment are met. This paper presents an empirical study of success and failure factors in policy implementation on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) education and its implications. A total of 2,900,000 IDPs housed in government recognized camps in Nigeria and 24 Desk Officers in-charge of IDPs in the Ministries of Education of the States under study were used. Three research questions were raised and answered using qualitative approach to analyze the data. The major findings are that IDPs of school age in North Central had low access to education; in the North East and North West, they had moderate access but they had high access to quality and inclusive education in South-South. The extent of policy practice of IDPs’ education was moderate in North Central, North West and in South-South but the extent of policy practice in the North East was high; because, the policy dictates were strictly followed. The success of the policy implementation in the Northern part of the country were: IDPs’ access to education, conducive and safe environment for learning and integration; while the failure aspect of the policy implementation was poor access to education. In South-South, success area of policy implementation include access to education and care for girl-child peculiarities, while the down side of the policy implementation in this region was poor integration of IDPs. Therefore, it was concluded that the extent of policy practice of IDPs’ education was moderate in North Central, North West and in South-South but high in North East because of the strict compliance with the policy dictates.