PROTOCOLS
I wish to welcome our partners in the World Bank to Kaduna. Our assignment today is to formally inaugurate the Global Partnership for Education, which seeks to support Education in Kaduna State over the next four years. The size of the grant is USD 21m, and it is money that our schools direly need.
We thank the World Bank for selecting Kaduna State to participate in the GPE project. The goal of the project is to expand access to quality basic education in our state. This objective coheres entirely with the manifesto on which we were elected. In opposition, and now in government, we have been consistent in our belief that we need to build human capital, get all our children in school, improve the learning environment and empower teachers with the best pedagogical skills. In fact, the GPE project is more or less a substantial portion of our governance agenda in the Education sector.
Thus we have since last year began to make the substantial investments needed to improve public primary schools in our state. Schools are being repaired, with boreholes being sunk to provide water, and toilet facilities being provided. Our primary school pupils are being provided a meal in every school day to improve retention. This is addition to providing free uniforms for our secondary school students. To improve the quality of instruction, we have recruited over 2,000 teachers for core subjects and are giving current teachers a pathway for acquiring the qualifications they require.
There is no way to minimize or paper over the state of Education in the North. The consequences of the collapse of the Education sector have been tragic, in ruined lives, truncated life chances despair and crime. Many opine that even the insurgency we are battling has roots in the poor educational outcomes in the North-East. We have a duty to build anew the structures of learning, resource them and give our children a future that is better than the past. To achieve this, we all need to appreciate the magnitude of the work required and make the attitudinal changes to get all children in school, stop the premature withdrawal of girls and support children to be fully immersed in learning.
On this note, I wish to reiterate that the Kaduna State Government under our watch is irrevocably determined to open the doors of learning to every child; and we will not shy from the hard work of making our public schools places that can deliver quality education.
It is my pleasure today to launch the Global Partnership for Education in Kaduna State, as further reinforcement of our vast agenda to improve basic education in our state. Our partners in the World Bank should have every confidence that we would live up to our obligations in this partnership, and work to deliver significant improvements in the Education sector.
Thank you for listening.
Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, OFR
Governor of Kaduna State
May 3, 2016
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