Date: 2020-11-06

The Kwara State Government has said it will spend the sum of N7,15bn grant received from the Universal Basic Education Commission to fix basic schools in the state.

The state Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Mrs Fatimah Ahmed, in a statement on Thursday, said this was the first time since 2013 that the government would embark on rehabilitation of basic schools in the state.

Ahmed said the development was a historic feat for Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who had spent the last one year working to reposition basic education in the state.

She said, "This money would be spent in phases over the next two years to fix up to 600 elementary schools out of the over 1400 dilapidated basic education facilities across the state. The projects would be monitored by UBEC to ensure compliance with the work plan submitted by the government.

"This development has taken Kwara State out of the bottom position in the ranking of states with the highest figures of outstanding UBEC grants. The pitiful state of basic education infrastructure in the state is a reflection of the failure to access UBEC funds and the near-zero investments in the sector over the past few years.

"The N7.1billion is an accumulation of UBEC grants that were not accessed between 2014 and 2019. The funds were not accessed because the former administration failed to pay its counterpart funds."

Ahmed explained that the UBEC grants were meant for the rehabilitation of dilapidated basic schools, construction of new ones, schools' ICT tools, training of teachers, and project evaluation contained in the UBEC work plan.