The Board of Executive Directors of Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has approved a Multi-Year Financial Facility Programme of $98 million for the promotion of bilingual education in Nigeria.
Head, Public Relations and Protocol, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Mr David Apeh, in a statement released in Abuja, on Wednesday, explained that the aim of the project was to contribute to the improvement of the socio-economic condition of Nigeria, ensure inclusive education and promote bilingual education.
He listed the nine benefitting states in the project as; Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Osun.
Apeh added that the major components of the project were to create access to basic education, improve quality and enhance the management capacity of school administrators.
He disclosed that in all, 30 bilingual education boarding schools are to be constructed in the nine states, which would help boost enrolment and reduce the Out-of-School-Children (OOSC) syndrome as well as expose learners to the knowledge of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
“Another important feature of this project is the Awqaf and Istisnaa embedded to provide real estate business for sustainable income for the programme.
“The Project is being coordinated at the National level by Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Coordinating Unit (NCU) with supervision by Federal Ministry of Education and Federal Ministry of Finance,” he said.
The UBEC spokesperson indicated that the National Coordinating Unit has already engaged consultants to design, review and supervise the civil works of the projects and has also engaged the services of a monitoring and evaluation consultant.
He further noted that the office furniture and equipment have been procured for the nine participating states, adding the process of the civil work has just commenced.
He said a stakeholders meeting was organized recently to brief the states on the level of the project implementation with the nine states represented by their Commissioners of Finance, SUBEB Chairmen, Heads of Project Management Units (PMUs) and Tsangaya Arabic and Islamic Education Agencies.
2021-12-15