The Kebbi State Government on Thursday commenced the disbursement of over N252 million School Improvement Grant to 1,261 selected public primary schools for upkeep and maintenance.
Flagging off the distribution in Birnin, Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State, however, observed that the amount was not sufficient enough to take care of all challenges in the education sector but to assist in maintenance.
The benefiting primary schools under Better Education Service Delivery for All, BESDA, programme across the state will receive the sum of N200,000 each from the state government.
Mr Bagudu stressed the need for stakeholders in education to put all hands on deck to rescue the standard of education, advising that almamata should endeavour to pay back to the society through rendering assistance in all ramification to collectively revamp the sector.
The governor appreciated the contribution of professors who served as Chairmen of Education in their respective LGAs, saying that their decision to accept the responsibility meant a lot to their efforts in contributing their own quota to the development of the sector.
“The essence of bringing these professors is to minimise delay in identifying problems in education, they knew such problems and they already have the remedy at hand.
“As academicians, they fear no one, therefore, at an appropriate time, they tell both government and other stakeholders what they are supposed to do,” he said.
Hassan Shalla, the state Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, lauded the governor for his wisdom to invite professors to handle some aspects of basic education in the state.
Mr Shalla sought for collective support of all stakeholders to rescue education from collapse, insisting that education was the responsibility of all, hence the need for collective action.
He said the grant is disbursed was meant to complement the efforts of BESDA, apart from encouraging people to actively play a complementary role in the educational development of their respective areas.
The Executive Chairman, Kebbi State Universal Education Board (KBSUEB), Prof. Suleiman Khalid, enumerated some objectives of BESDA to include returning out-of-school children back to classrooms in addition to repositioning the sector.
While appreciating the efforts of all stakeholders in the education sector in Kebbi State, Khalid joyfully said the state was able to bring back about 750,000 out-of-school children back to the classroom.
He said based on an exercise conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, the state was rated first in Nigeria, as far as BESDA programme is concerned.
Speaking on the grant disbursement, he said the money would be given to about 65 per cent of public schools across the state, assuring that in future disbursement the entire public schools would be captured.
The chairman noted with satisfaction that prior to the disbursement, the State Government had procured 1,261 tabs and distributed the same to the said schools, saying, “as I am talking now, pupils attendance in these schools is no longer taken manually, rather, it’s being done digitally.
“Any child that comes to school will be captured and anyone who is unable we will know him. At the headquarters here we will see for every school and even in UBEC, Abuja, they will see every child registered on the board and we have 1,261 schools.
“Kudus to His Excellency, Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, he procured 1,261 tablets and they were given exactly to 1,261 schools no single one was actually kept in Chairman’s office or any other office. The last time we checked, only three or four developed malfunction.
“All these schools were trained on digital attendance and they are the same schools that are now benefitting from this grant,” he noted.
NAN
