Global Partnership for Education gives $100m to fund schools in northern Nigeria

INTERNATIONAL non-governmental organisation the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) has supported 12,179 schools across northern Nigeria with a $100m grant aimed at eradicating illiteracy in the region.

 

Nigeria currently has the highest rate of out-of-school children in the world, with about 10.5m kids not in full time education. Most of these are in northern Nigeria and exasperated with the problem, the United Nations decided to intervene by organising a conference in Abuja where $500m was raised to address the issue.

 

Minister of education Mallam Adamu Adamu, said that the latest funding from GPE will go to Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa and Sokoto states. Speaking in Abuja, during the maiden meeting of the national steering committee of the Nigerian Partnership for Education Project (Nipep), Mallam Adamu added that the gesture is part of efforts to enhance quality and standard education across northern Nigeria.

 

According to Mallam Adamu, Nipep was targeted at 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. He stressed that the project was designed to benefit the girl child at the basic level in public schools, integrated Islamiyya schools and female teachers in the five states in the area of professional teacher-development training.

 

He said about 96,954 teacher-development initiatives were in the pipeline to help improve the quality and standard of classroom instruction. Mallam Adamu, however, expressed concern over the unavailability of accurate and credible data saying, no meaningful development can take place without this.

 

Mallam Adamu added:  “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. 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."

 

He pointed out that the entire implementation of the project would be at the school level, while the Federal Ministry of Education will ensure the effective coordination and monitoring to guarantee smooth and successful execution. In the past, the United States Agency for International Development contributed $100m towards the development of universal education in Nigeria.