By Philip Yatai
The Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (KADSUBEB), on Tuesday began the disbursement of N430 million to 2,380 primary schools under the World Bank-supported Better Education Delivery for All (BESDA) programme.
The Executive Chairman of the Board, Alhaji Tijjani Abdullahi, during the handing over of the cheques to benefiting schools in Kaduna, said the amount was for the schools to carry out minor repairs.
Abdullahi explained that each of the schools is expected to get over N183,000 through their School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs).
He said that out of the 2,380 benefiting schools, he had signed cheques to 2,121 schools with functional SBMCs and account numbers, amounting to over N388 million.
He added that the remaining 259 schools would receive their funds when they submit their account details.
According to him, the funds were distributed under BESDA, a World Bank-supported Programme for Result (P for R), initiated by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) with support from the Federal Ministry of Education.
Abdullahi stressed that the goal of the programme is to tackle the menace of out-of-school children in the country.
He said that the programme, which began in 2019, was a US$ 611 million loan from the World Bank, which the Federal Government was giving to 17 participating states as grant.
He said that Kaduna State had so far received US$ 20 million (about N9 billion) based on its performance so far.
He explained that the N 430 million was part of what the state had earned from UBEC in delivering key results areas of the BESDA programme for the schools with functional SBMCs to undertake minor repairs.
“Apart from this, we will also be providing school uniforms, school shoes, school bags, exercise books and tablet computers for teachers to register attendance,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 17 participating states were selected for accounting for the highest number of out-of-school children in the country.
The states include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Yobe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger, Ebonyi, Rivers, and Oyo.
The BESDA programme essentially focuses on increasing access for out-of-school children and ensuring that children who attend school could read, write, and manipulate figures.
Out of the US$ 611 million, US$ 578 million is being spent on P for R and US$ 33 million on Technical Assistance.
Under P for R, states would be rewarded for results achieved within a given period based on the number of out-of-school children they were able to return or enrolled in school by gender.
On technical assistance, US$ 33 million is being spent on various activities to strengthen the capacity of Federal and State government officials to improve monitoring and evaluation as well as data evaluation,” Abdullahi said. (NAN)
