The Japanese government in its bid to boost education in
Nigeria through its programme known as Japan Grant Aid 2014 is set to spend the
sum of $8.5m in the construction of primary schools in Oyo state.
This was revealed during a tender opening on behalf of the
Japanese government at the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) with the
aim of tackling the major challenge of education in Nigeria which is equity and
access.
The spokesman from the Japan International Corporation System
and project manager, Mr Kazunori Ogaguchi revealed that the programme which is
expected to last 12 months will construct 30 primary schools and 225
classrooms.
“The aim of the programme is to enhance access for children
and it is expected to last for a 12 month period. We will construct 30 primary
schools, 225 classrooms, and will provide staff component for school building.”
“Oyo state is the second state that has been considered as
the project has taken place already in Kano state and all of this is done with
the motive of enhancing access into schools for children.”
The project coordinator and representative of UBEC, Iro Umar,
during his interaction with newsmen, disclosed that the commission is empowered
by the law establishing it to seek for assistance from international agencies
like JICA in fighting the statistics of 10 million out of school children in
Nigeria.”
On why Oyo state was chosen, Umar stated that “proposals are
submitted from all states and budgets are looked at and where assistance should
go to are seen and chosen. It’s usually left for JICA to decide which state it
wants to pick at a time.”
It will be recalled that the Japanese government has
continued to offer assistance to Nigeria through Japan International
Corporation Agency (JICA) in teachers training tagged “train the trainee” which
has been in collaboration with the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI) and is
known to have always renewed it’s agreement in assisting Nigeria in its vision
for education for all.
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