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By Abdulwaheed Olayinka Adubi, Kaduna
Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (KADSUBEB), has disbursed the sum of N183,000 to 2,121 schools in the state to enable them undertake minor repairs.
The money disbursed to the schools was part of the N400 million the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) gave the Kaduna State Government.
Speaking at the ceremony where cheques where disbursed to the benefiting schools, the Executive Chairman of KADSUBEB, Malam Tijjani Abdullahi, said the fund was part of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme.
Abdullahi, who advised School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) to utilise them prudently, disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Education and UBEC selected the benefitting schools after conducting a survey in 2021.
“Sometimes last year, they did a survey of our schools and it has been confirmed that we have functional School-Based Management Committees. So, based on that they allocated about N400 million to schools that need assistance.
“As at today, I signed payment to all the schools, totaling N388, 155, 726 million. So each school will receive N183, 000. We expect that the SBMCs will utilize this money and undertake minor repairs in schools.”
The KADSUBEB chairman further recalled that BESDA was conceived by the Federal Government in order to return the over 10.3 million out-of-school children, according to UNICEF statistics, back to school.
“So, the government borrowed $611 million from the World Bank and it is giving 17 states as grants and Kaduna state is one of the states. The states were selected based on out of school children data.
“The programme started in 2019, and it is going to end some time this year in October,” he added.
Abdullahi however, said, Kaduna State has been benefitting from the grant, adding that it initially received advances from UBEC and we started sensitization, community mobilization to get children registered in schools.
Subsequently, based on our performance, UBEC released money to us and Kaduna state got a total of about $20 million.”
He added that Kaduna State Government has been providing uniforms, materials, textbooks, exercise books, school bags, and school sandals to pupils.
“In addition to this grant, we are providing them tablets to register attendance. There is an application that will be loaded on the tablet. And we will be able to monitor school attendance. The tablets will be delivered to the schools in the next two to three weeks,” the KADSUBEB chairman said.
Abdullahi, however, thanked the Federal Government for initiating the BESDA programme, including the Federal Ministry of Education and UBEC for implementing it.