The Global Partnership for Education recently donated $100 million in support of 12,179 schools in the North-West geopolitical zone of the country. The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, who revealed this in Abuja during the maiden meeting of the national steering committee of the Nigerian Partnership for Education Project (NIPEP), said that the beneficiaries are Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto States.
This grant should go some way in enhancing the quality of education in that part of the country
The minister explained that the NIPEP initiative will equally promote school effectiveness, improve learning outcomes and increase access to basic education for children who are currently out of school, especially the girls. It will also strengthen the ability of the managers to adequately plan and manage the education system.
According to the minister, the project is designed to benefit the girl-child at the basic level in public schools and the Islamiyya schools, and female teachers in the five states through professional teacher-development programmes. Specifically, about 96,954 teacher-development initiatives are being planned to improve the quality and standard of classroom instruction in the affected states. Also, 18,421 female teachers will receive scholarship and training that will enhance their competence in the classroom as well as help them serve as role models for the girl-child. While the implementation of the entire programme will be at the school level, the Federal Ministry of Education will ensure effective coordination and monitoring to achieve smooth and successful execution of the project.
We commend the Global Partnership for Education for this kind gesture and urge the benefiting states to use the grant judiciously, to improve the quality and standard of education in the zone. We say this because the importance of qualitative education as a tool for socio-economic development cannot be overemphasized.
It is laudable that this intervention has come at this time that we need to deploy more resources to address the many problems in the education sector, especially in the North. We believe that the choice of the beneficiary states is also appropriate, given that these states are lagging behind in education when compared to their counterparts in the South.
However, it will be very helpful if such gesture is in future extended to the other zones of the country that also need improvement in the quality and standard of their education systems. The fact still remains that the Federal and State governments have not done enough in the funding of education in the country, generally. This is quite apparent in our national development indicators. This deficiency must be addressed urgently, if we intend to accelerate growth. The $100m grant may look like a drop in the ocean, given the enormity of the work that needs to be done to make public schools in the benefitting zone real centres of learning. How this money is utilised and accounted for will determine how much further help comes our way. Therefore, let proper implementation and monitoring guides be put in place to ensure that this intervention grant is well utilised. This gesture should be seen as a wake-up call on government at all levels in the country to urgently increase their budgetary allocations to education. They should also take the lead in efforts to reverse the rot in the education sector.
Although government cannot fix the problems of the education sector alone, it must show great interest in revamping the sector. Let government provide adequate classrooms and teaching aids in all Nigerian schools.