International Organisation gifts N420m for Schools in the North

12,179 schools in the North are said to have benefited from the largesse of an international organisation — Global Partnership for Education according to Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu. The Minister made public the receipt of a $100m (N420m) grant, given out to support education by the group.

This took place in Abuja on Tuesday during the maiden meeting of the national steering committee of the Nigerian Partnership for Education Project (NIPEP).

The beneficiary states of this grant are Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto states.

Whilst speaking , Adamu who noted that the gesture is part of efforts to enhance quality and standard education in the North, listed out the target objectives of NIPEP which include- promoting school effectiveness, ensuring improved learning outcomes, increasing access to basic education for children who were currently out of school, particularly girls, and strengthening the ability of the managers to plan and manage the system well.

The Minister further stressed that the project was designed to benefit the girl child at the basic level in public schools.

He also stated that it would benefit integrated Islamiyya schools and female teachers in the five states in the area of professional teacher-development training.

“A total of 12,179 schools are expected to benefit from the school grants while teachers are expected to benefit from about 96,954 teacher-development programme initiatives across the NIPEP states to improve professional knowledge, quality of classroom instruction and teacher assessment skills,” he noted in his speech.

“In addition, 18,421 female teachers are expected to receive scholarships and hopefully become more competent and go on to act as role models for the girl-child. The entire implementation of the project would be at the school level, while the Federal Ministry of Education will ensure effective coordination and monitoring to guarantee smooth and successful execution.”

Mallam Adamu however stated  that “no meaningful development can take place without this,” while expressing his concerns over the unavailability of accurate and credible data.