The federal government and World Bank teams on Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) have applauded Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for his administration’s reforms and commitments in improving learning outcomes for children in the state.
AGILE is a World Bank-assisted Project of the Federal Government. Kwara has qualified to be enrolled into the programme that seeks better girl child education, especially in senior secondary school.
“Your Excellency, we know the story of Kwara State. We have seen the performance of Kwara State in education quality assurance. You have been a pace setter. Also, in the monitoring of learning achievements of performance of learners when it comes to basic education and post basic education, you are doing so well,” National Project Coordinator of AGILE project in the Federal Ministry of Education Hajia Aminah Haruna said during a visit to Government House Ilorin on Tuesday.
“We have gone round and we have seen some schools and the possibility of intervening. We have seen commitments. We know you are coming from a long journey. But you have shown signs of strong commitments. We really appreciate that.”
World Bank’s Senior Education Specialist in Nigeria Tunde Adekola, for his part, said the team was in Kwara for its appraisal mission as the state is eligible for the AGILE project among the 11 additional states.
“Our coming here is to tell you that Kwara State is now eligible for the AGILE project. We are happy about this, and we call it an appraisal mission. It is after appraisal mission that we will do negotiations. This is very important to us because we have the original AGILE project in seven states and out of the 11 states that we are extending the project to, it is only six states that are ready now and Kwara is one of them,” he said, adding that the administration has really done well for the education sector.
Adekola explained that the intervention of the AbdulRazaq’s administration in the education sector has created a platform for the smooth take off of AGILE project in the state.
Kwara State Project Coordinator Adesina Salami noted that the Governor’s enthusiasm and love for education in Kwara State made it possible for the state to fulfill all the conditions set by the World Bank for the AGILE project.
Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, for his part, said the administration has addressed many of the challenges facing the sector, including non-payment of salary and general infrastructural decay, but added that a lot still needs to be done.
“The challenges are huge. But we have addressed some of them. For the neglect of many years, it will take us time to cover some of these schools. And we are not doing concentric development by staying only in the state capital. We spread what we do across all the local government areas. The digital literacy centres, too, are spread across the state,” he said.
“We have engaged New Globe to bring technology into our classrooms. With that, every teacher must know how to use a tablet…. That has helped us in issues of enumeration, curriculum, and check students’ absenteeism. KwaraLEARN programme is very effective.”
AbdulRazaq promised improved budgetary provisions to support the education sector to address schools’ infrastructural deficits and improve teaching and learning across the state.
