The Board of Executive Directors of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has approved a multi-year financial facility program worth 98 million dollars to promote bilingual education in Nigeria.
This is stated in a statement issued by Mr David Apeh, the Universal Basic Education Commission’s Head of Public Relations and Protocol (UBEC).
According to the commission, the program will run from 2012 to 2015.
The project aims to contribute to the improvement of Nigeria’s socioeconomic situation, to ensure inclusive education, and to promote bilingual education.
Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, and Niger Osun are among the states set to benefit from the project, according to the commission.
According to UBEC, the project’s main components are to increase access to basic education, improve quality, and strengthen school administrators’ management capacity.
According to the commission, 30 bilingual education boarding schools will be built in benefiting states to increase enrollment and reduce out-of-school-children syndrome, among other things.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the project is being coordinated at the national level by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Coordinating Unit (NCU), with oversight from the Federal Ministries of Education and Finance.
NAN further reports that the NCU has already hired consultants to design, assess, and supervise the civil works of the projects, as well as a Monitoring and Evaluation consultant.
Dr Hamid Bobboyi, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, told NAN that the project was a loan and that everything needed to be done to ensure successful implementation and careful management.