Kwara Gov urges international community, donor agencies to invest in quality education
By Rosheed Okiki
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has described as an urgency of now for the international community, including donor agencies and development partners to promote access to quality education for millions of children in need of it.
Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the twenty-twenty-three United Nations General Assembly in New York, Governor AbdulRazaq explained that his administration had invested billions of naira on school infrastructure and introduction of technology to promote good teaching techniques, accountability, and effective learning.
Organised by Devex Event and New Globe, a theme of the event was ‘Addressing Africa’s learning crisis and preparing for a young future: finding solutions.’
The Governor spoke alongside president and co-founder of NewGlobe Shannon May; executive director of Education Cannot Wait, an initiative of the United Nations, Yasmine Sherif; editorial director of Devex Richard Jones; senior fellow and deputy director of Centre for Universal Education, Brookings Institution, Jennifer O’donoghue; senior fellow at Stanford University Eric Hanushek; and executive director- Africa CAMFED Shungu Gwarinda; among many others.
Governor AbdulRazaq explained that learning deprivation in Kwara public schools has reduced from seventy point eight percent to fifty-one point six percent within a space of forty weeks of introducing the new programme, KwaraLEARN.
In his remarks, the Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, Yasmine Sherif, who commended what the Governor had done in Kwara, said he had rightly called a need to jointly fund education and promote inclusion “an urgency of now” especially in the deployment of resources to deepen functional education.
Yasmine said she would soon lead a team to Nigeria as part of the global campaign for education rights of young children, adding that Kwara would be on their radar during such visit.
NewGlobe co-founder Shannon May said she was impressed at the vision of Governor Abdulrazaq to transform public schools in Kwara State, urging other states and leaders in Africa to deploy the same resources and energy to the same cause.
She commended the progress so far made in Kwara State and a few other Nigerian states, saying such improvements had been made possible through political will and reliance on data-based strategies to drive inclusive education and great learning outcomes for young people.
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