Kaduna state governments disbursed $21.5m World Bank scholarship to female teachers and girl children

The Kaduna state government had on Thursday commenced the disbursement of $21.5 million World Bank scholarship to female teachers and girl children. The state Executive Chairman, Universal Basic Education Board, Nasiru Umar, said that the grant was being disbursed under the Global Partnership for Education/Nigerian Partnership for Education Project. Mr. Umar said the grant was a World Bank intervention aimed at improving access and quality of basic education of the girl-child and “Almajiris”. He said a total of 8,050 primary one to three girls from poor and backward communities in the state would each get N45,000 under the scheme.

The chairman said 1,047 female teachers would also receive N45,000 each under the scheme. In addition, the scheme also provided grant for schools development, he said.

According to him, a total of 4,500 Nursery, Primary and Islamiya Schools will each receive N400,000 to improve infrastructure. He noted that 2,563 Nursery, Primary and Islamiya schools benefited under the school development grant in 2016, resulting to a rise in public school enrolment. Umar commended the state government for releasing N312 million for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) in 2016. He said that 11,312 teachers had been trained on leadership and teaching skills to improve efficiency. “This is a clear demonstration of the government’s effort towards improving teachers capacity for effective teaching and learning in public schools.“It is our hope that the government will equally release the N500 million earmarked for 2017 TPD,’’ the chairman said. (NAN)