Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board (KADSUBEB) has disbursed N183,000 to 2,121 schools to enable them to undertake minor repairs from the N400 million that the Universal Basic Education Commission(UBEC) gave to the state government.
At the ceremony where cheques were disbursed to benefiting schools, the Executive Chairman of KADSUBEB, Malam Tijjani Abdullahi said the fund is part of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme.
The Executive Chairman who advised School-based Management Committees (SBMCs) to utilise them prudently, said the Federal Ministry of Education and UBEC selected the benefitting schools after conducting a survey last year.
“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 of today, I signed payment to all the schools, totalling N388, 155, 726 million. So, each school will receive N183, 000. We expect that the SBMCs will utilise this money and undertake minor repairs in schools,” he added.
The Executive Chairman recalled that BESDA was conceived by the Federal Government in order to return the over 10.3 million out-of-school children, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) statistics, back to school.
“The World Bank gave 17 states a grant of $611 million and Kaduna State is one of the states. The states were selected based on out-of-school children’s data. The programme started in 2019, and will end in October,” he said.
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According to Malam Tijjani, Kaduna State has been benefitting from the grant, adding that it initially ‘’received advances from UBEC and we started sensitisation, 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.”
The Executive Chairman said Kaduna State Government has been providing uniforms, materials, textbooks, exercise books, school bags and school sandals for pupils.
He further said that “in addition to this grant, we provide 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 Executive Chairman of KADSUBEB thanked the Federal Government for initiating the BESDA programme, including the Federal Ministry of Education and UBEC for implementing it.
Also, a female senatorial aspirant for Kaduna South Senatorial District on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Tinok Andrew Nok has said there was no primary for the position she was contesting. She alleged that she was disenfranchised as a woman even after purchasing the form as the sole aspirant.
In a chat with reporters in Kaduna yesterday, she alleged that the date initially slated for her affirmation was shifted without prior notice only for another person’s name to be presented from nowhere.
She said: “I am deeply sad that I had to draw the attention of the national leadership of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) and the general public on the recently-concluded primaries election that took place on June 5, 2022, in Kafanchan Kaduna State.
She argued that “Southern Kaduna was on the verge of making a sophisticated political statement as well as demonetise politics, include women and youths in government and entrust leadership to the common man.”