By: Admin

MINNA, North-Central, Nigeria –  Niger State Universal Basic Education Board, (NSUBEB) says it has returned 224, 879 out-of-school children to classrooms through Better Education Service Delivery for All, (BASDA), from 2019 to-date.

NSUBEB Chairman Sai’du Ibrahim, announced this at a news conference on Wednesday in Minna, adding that those returned were mostly girls and Almajirai children.

He said the board paid N400 million as outstanding four months BASDA arrears to 400 local facilitators targeted at addressing issues on out-of-school children in the state.

Ibrahim said that 87 technical staff of the board were trained to build their capacity on effective monitoring for better performance as well as improve basic education in the state.

According to him, the board successfully paid outstanding July salaries of teachers in Gbako and Shiroro Local Government Areas, hence the board was not owing any teacher in the state.

He also said the State Governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello, approved payment of more than N2 billion as 2019, 2020 and 2021 backlog of Universal Basic Education Commission, (UBEC).

He added that the board recently established 24 additional Junior Secondary Schools across the three senatorial districts and three Primary Schools, procured and distributed weekly registers, diary, admission registers and chalk for schools across the state.

The NSUBEB chairman said the board recently reintroduced monthly payment of imprest to education secretaries and recruited teachers to fill the manpower gaps in some local government areas.

He said plans were underway to establish modern science primary schools starting with four LGAs as pilot; pointing out that some staff of the board would be sent to Sokoto State to learn from the state on how successfully the project was implemented.

He said the board would continue to prioritize welfare of staff through trainings and retraining for better performance, saying all pending issues bordering the board had been addressed.

Ibrahim commended Gov. Sani-Bello for providing enabling environment for the board to operate, and vowed that the board would prioritize effective monitoring and supervision of schools in 2023.