By Usman Muhammed Zaria
Jigawa State Government is collaborating with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and two other states to develop a proposed 110-million-dollar education project aimed at improving school infrastructure, strengthening teachers’ capacity and creating a better learning environment.
The proposed intervention, known as the SMART Project, was disclosed when Governor Umar Namadi received an IsDB delegation led by the Bank’s Operations Team Leader for Social Infrastructure, Mr Imtiaz Alam, during a courtesy visit to Government House, Dutse.
According to a statement by the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Hamisu Mohammed Gumel, the delegation, accompanied by officials of the Federal Ministry of Finance, was in Jigawa on a project preparation mission to engage the state government, assess its education priorities and gather information for the development of the project proposal.
Mr Alam said the project would support the construction of new schools, rehabilitation of existing facilities and provision of water and sanitation infrastructure.
It would also provide teacher training and capacity-building programmes to improve teaching and learning.
He explained that the mission was aimed at consulting participating states and incorporating their priorities into a comprehensive proposal for submission to the IsDB Board of Executive Directors for consideration and approval.
Mr Alam said the participating states were selected based on their readiness, responsiveness, submitted concept notes and the feasibility of their proposals. Other considerations included teacher-to-student ratios and the number of schools.
On the financing arrangement, he said the proposed project would combine IsDB development financing with grant support from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), while efforts were being made to mobilise additional resources from other development partners.
Governor Namadi described the engagement as an important opportunity to strengthen the state’s efforts to address challenges in the education sector.
He said the state approached the IsDB because of its capacity to support development initiatives and mobilise other development partners and donors to invest in priority areas.
The governor highlighted ongoing interventions to improve school enrolment, retention and learning outcomes, including the establishment of the Tsangaya Education Board and the strengthening of Tsangaya schools through integrated and model categories to address the challenge of out-of-school children.
He also disclosed that the government had introduced a policy requiring political appointees to mobilise and return a specified number of out-of-school children from their communities to school, an initiative he said was yielding positive results.
Governor Namadi further revealed that the state had recruited more than 10,000 teachers at the basic education level to address staffing gaps and strengthen supervision, monitoring and evaluation.
He said the proposed IsDB-supported project would complement these interventions by providing additional resources to improve school infrastructure, enhance teacher development and raise the quality of education.
“Our objective is to improve learning outcomes and ensure that our students can compete favourably wherever they find themselves,” the governor said.
Governor Namadi expressed confidence that the proposed intervention, if approved and implemented, would expand the state’s education initiatives and accelerate efforts to address existing challenges.
Editing by Yusuf Zubairu
