Not fewer than 1,320 schools in five Local Government Areas of Bauchi State are to benefit from the 2019 Schools Improvement Project Grants which is a World Bank project aimed at improving learning and teaching.
Each of the benefiting schools is to get N500,000 each from the grant which totals N660 million.
While speaking shortly after presenting cheques to representatives of the schools on Wednesday, Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed pledged to improve the funding of education as part of efforts to tackle the menace of out-of-school children in the state.
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He said that his administration is already on the verge of restoring the lost glory of the fallen standard in Primary and Secondary Schools in line with the planned Education reforms, through the provision of additional infrastructure, rehabilitation, training and retraining of teachers.
According to him, the present administration is redirecting the education sector in order to achieve the desired focus and to harness the potentials of children in public schools and assured his readiness towards providing equal education opportunity to all the citizens of the state.
Bala Mohammed tasked the benefiting schools to use the disbursed funds to improve their school’s infrastructures to ensure better teaching and learning activities in schools, in addition, enhancing the learning process of the pupils.
The Governor further appealed to relevant stakeholders to assist at supporting youths to apply their creativity and establish innovations that will lead the state into a competitive world as no society would develop without sound and qualitative education.
On his part, the State Coordinator of the Project, Muhammad Datti Umar who listed the benefiting local government areas as Zaki, Shira, Ganjuwa, Katagum Darazo and Toro, said that the project was designed to finance minor issues in schools in the areas of renovations, rehabilitation of twin desk and repairs of water points.
He said measures have been taken for financing records of grant activities, development of school improvement plan and use of Kobo collect software using global positioning system to capture school-based management Committee to ensure proper utilisation of the funds released.
The Coordinator also said that the programme was also designed to strengthen public schools operation through good governance and accountability for sustainable educational development.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Alhaji Musa Wadata said the project would enhance schools management by the local communities with a view to ensuring community participation in school affairs.
The Permanent Secretary noted that the present administration in the state had inherited challenges in the education sector to include among others, decayed infrastructures in schools, lack of teaching and learning materials and lack of effective monitoring and acknowledged the efforts of the governor towards repositioning the sector.
He mentioned some of the achievements of the ministry within the first 100 days of his administration to among others, payment of accumulated backlog of school feeding program from 2016 to date amounting to over 400, 000,000.00, purchase of over 40000 copies of assorted textbooks, and establishment of 15 skills acquisition Centers in collaboration with Women Entrepreneurship Development Initiative.
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