From Abdullahi Idris, Dutse
The Jigawa State Government and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), are collaborating on the preparation of a proposed US$110 million education project, designed to improve school infrastructure, strengthen teacher capacity and create a more conducive learning environment in Jigawa State and two other participating states.
The proposed intervention, tagged the SMART Project, was revealed on Friday when Governor Umar Namadi, received an IsDB delegation, led by Mr. Imtiaz Alam, Operations Team Leader for Social Infrastructure at the Bank, during a courtesy visit to Government House, Dutse.
The delegation, which was accompanied by staff of the Federal Ministry of Finance, was in Jigawa as part of a preparation mission to engage the state government, understand its education priorities, and gather relevant information for the development of the project proposal.
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Delivering his remarks, 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 include teacher training, capacity building, and interventions to improve the teaching and learning environment.
He stated that the purpose of the mission was to consult the participating states, document their priorities, and incorporate their needs into a comprehensive project document for submission to the IsDB Board of Executive Directors for consideration and approval.
Mr. Alam said the participating states were selected following an assessment of their readiness, responsiveness to the process, submitted concept notes, and the feasibility of their proposals, adding that indicators such as teacher-to-student ratios and the number of schools were also considered in the selection process.
On the financing arrangement, he explained that the proposed project would involve a combination of IsDB development financing and grant support from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), while the bank was also exploring opportunities to mobilise additional resources from other development partners.
Governor Namadi described the engagement as an important opportunity to strengthen the state’s ongoing efforts to address challenges in the education sector.
He said the state approached the Islamic Development Bank, because of its capacity not only to support development initiatives but also to mobilise other development partners and donors to contribute to priority interventions.
He noted that, while pursuing the proposed partnership, the state government had continued to implement measures aimed at improving school enrollment, retention, and learning outcomes.
Among these interventions is the establishment of the Tsangaya Education Board and the strengthening of Tsangaya schools, including their integrated and model categories, saying the measures had contributed to the state’s efforts to address the challenge of out-of-school children.
He also highlighted a deliberate government policy requiring political appointees to mobilise and return a specified number of out-of-school children from their respective communities to the classroom, stating that the initiative is yielding positive results.
The governor also disclosed that the state government had recruited more than 10,000 teachers at the basic education level to ensure adequate staffing in schools and strengthen supervision, monitoring, and evaluation.
He said the proposed IsDB-supported project would complement these existing interventions by providing the additional resources required to improve school infrastructure, strengthen 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,” he said.
Governor Namadi expressed confidence that the proposed intervention, when approved and implemented, would enable the state to expand its education initiatives and achieve greater progress in addressing existing challenges.
