Kaduna govt disburses grant to boost education

The Kaduna State Government says it has disbursed about 85 per cent of the 21.5 million dollars World Bank grant to boost access to quality basic education in the state.

Mallam Dahuru Anchau, the Director of Public Schools, Ministry of Education, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Sunday that the amount was disbursed between 2016 and 2019.

Anchau added that the remaining 15 per cent would be disbursed within the year.

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He said that the 21.5 million dollars were part of the 100 million dollars grant being disbursed in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto state under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) project.

Anchau, who coordinated the three-year project in the state, explained that the project 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.

According to him, the project is targeted at providing N45, 000 as a scholarship to 15, 000 primary one to three girls from poor and backward communities in the state.

“It also supports female teachers annually to enable them to obtain Nigeria Certificate in Education, the minimum teaching qualification in the country,’’ he said

Anchau said that the project provided 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 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 to pursue their studies,” he added.

Anchau, who described the project as a huge success, said that it significantly increased the enrolment and retention of the girl-child in primary schools.