The Katsina State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) has expended over $21million on various interventions on basic education in the last three years.
According to the board’s chairman, Lawal Buhari, the amount was expended under the Better Education Service Delivery for All Programme (BESDA).
BESDA is a World Bank intervention programme geared towards supporting states with the highest number of out-of-school children.
The programme intervenes in three result areas, namely increase in equitable access to education, improving literacy and system strengthening.
Buhari, while speaking with newsmen, said Katsina was identified as one of the 17 BESDA-focused states after the assessment, which revealed that it had the highest number of out-of-school children.
He said the state was identified to have 1.13 million children that are out of school, comprising of almajiris, nomads, internally displaced persons (IDP) and vulnerable children.
The chairman stated that the state had witnessed several interventions in the basic education sector through the programme, including the integration of 255 Quranic centres in the state.
He said the programme has succeeded in reducing the number of out-of-school children by 361,525, representing 36 per cent of the set target in the selected councils in the state.
Buhari, who commended Federal and state Governments for their role in ensuring access to the intervention fund, called for a review of the programme, which is expected to end in October.
