Kaduna govt. disburses 85 percent of $21.5m W/Bank education grant

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The Kaduna State Government has disbursed about 85 per cent of the $21.5 million dollar World Bank grant to boost access to quality basic education in the state.
The Director of Public Schools in the state’s Ministry of Education
Malam Dahuru Anchau disclosed this while speaking to the media in Kaduna yesterday.
Anchau said that the $21.5 million dollars was out of the $100 million dollars grant being disburse in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto state under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) project.
Anchau, who is the coordinator of the three-year project in the state, explained that the aim was to support the benefiting states in strengthening the quality of basic education.
He added that the goal was also to increase access to quality education, particularly the girl-child and Almajiris.
He said that the target was to provide N45, 000 as scholarship to 15, 000 primary one to three girls from poor and backward communities in the state.
He also said that the project also supports female teachers with 45,000 annually to enable them obtained Nigeria Certificate in Education, the minimum teaching qualification in the country.
The coordinator equally said that the scheme also provided 400,000 grants for school’s improvement to the over 4,200 primary schools in the state.
“So far, 4,260 primary schools, 249 Islamiya schools have benefitted from the annual 400,000 school improvement grant, while 1,600 pre-primary schools would benefit this year.
“Similarly, 20,000 girl-child and 1,053 female teachers have benefited from the N45,000 annual scholarship to encourage them pursue their studies,” he added.
He described the project in the state as a huge success, stressing that it has significantly increase the enrolment and retention of the girl-child in primary school.
He disclosed that had on Aug. 8 bagged the World Bank’s Nigeria Portfolio Performance Award of Excellence, during the bank’s Nigeria Portfolio Performance Awards 2019, held in Abuja.
“We equally the Best Performing State for World Bank Assisted Portfolio in Nigeria and Best State Coordination Mechanism for World Bank Assisted Portfolio in Nigeria, “he said.