$100m grant: 14,850 pupils on scholarships in 5 Northern states – FG

THE Federal Government has revealed that a total of 14,850 pupils were enrolled for the year 2015 and are on scholarships in five northern states under the Nigerian Partnership for Education Project.

Global Education Partners including World Bank, Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), had approved $100 million for Nigeria to boost access to quality basic education in five northern states of Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna and Jigawa.

A similar project is being sponsored by the World Bank in three states of Anambra, Bauchi and Ekiti with the grant of $150 million under the State Education Programme Investment Project (SEPID).

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, speaking at the Joint National Steering Committee meeting of SEPID and NIPEP, on Monday in Abuja said remarkable progress has been made by the projects.

According to him, the report of the independent verification consultants in the five NIPEP states indicated that 14,850 pupils out of the targeted 33,000 for the year 2015 were given scholarships as part of efforts to increase access to basic education for out-of-school children, especially for girls.

He explained that 6,996 girls benefitted from the scheme in Kano while 7,856 girls were beneficiaries in Katsina state, 8,000 in Sokoto, 4,637 in Kaduna and 5,000 girls in Jigawa.

Adamu who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah, said he was glad that the projects were on track to meet the project’s development objectives and that the progress made on the implementation was reasonable.

The minister further disclosed that in the five NIPEP states, out of the 3,167 targeted pre-primary schools for the 2015 academic session, 1,773 were beneficiaries of the schools grant while out of a total of 3,600 primary schools targeted 4,874 received grants.

He said the report on the three SEPIP states has indicated that out of the targeted 880 to be deployed in rural areas in 2015, in Anambra State 2,716 teachers were deployed, in Bauchi 3431 teachers deployed out of 2284 targeted and in Ekiti, out of 522 teachers, 1607 have been deployed.

Adamu, noted that while NIPEP is targeted at increasing pupils enrolment in schools, SEPIP is also making concerted effort in addressing lack of teachers in core subjects of English, Mathematics and sciences, through revised deployment of policy and teacher incentives.

He said: “We are indeed happy to note that reports from Kaduna State show an increase of 37.7 per cent in overall school enrolment and 42.5 per cent for the girl child. Results further revealed an increase of 38 per cent for female enrolment against 32 per cent for males.

“This development has been attributed to a combination of factors, particularly the school feeding programme, the level of awareness generated by the school improvement grant intervention and anticipation of the girls scholarships that is about to commence,” he said.

The minister while disclosing that the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) would provide additional classrooms stressed that both Federal and state governments would give utmost attention to the issue of upsurge in school enrolment in the country.