Follow The Money Tracks N569 Million UBE Spending in Kaduna State, Enhances State Policy for Participatory Basic Education

Follow The Money, has completed the tracking of the implementation of N569 million Naira Universal Basic Education fund in Kaduna State over the course of three years.

The campaign which was supported by the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation under its ON-Nigeria project, monitored the construction and rehabilitation of 23 basic school projects in Kudan, Kajuru, Zangon Kataf and Jema’a Local Government Areas (LGA) of the State. The project was triggered by the growing concern of the increasing number of out-of-school children in the country.

At a meeting with the Chairman of the State’s Universal Basic Education Board, Follow The Money Founder, Hamzat Lawal, commended the State for its open government policy and for allocating 27% of its budget to developing education. He noted that as a way of increasing citizens’ interest in government, the FTM team drafted a policy for participatory basic education spending in the state which mainstreams SBMCs in Kad-SUBEB’s UBE work planning and implementation.

The Executive Chairman, KadSUBEB, Mr Tijjani Abdullahi, revealed that the State Universal Basic Education Board (Kad-SUBEB) will develop a framework that allows the School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) to make inputs into the Kad-SUBEB’s annual plans and grant them access to the list of school projects that are to be implemented for monitoring effective service delivery.

He added that although about 500,000 children returned to school pre-COVID19, there is the need to build more Classrooms for the students, as measures to enforce social distancing in the classroom, during the pandemic.

Recall CODE had met with the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, last year to present a needs assessment report conducted on 609 schools for evidence-based UBE action planning in the State. The report showed that a considerable increase in the enrolment of children in schools was as a result of the School Feeding Programme, however, 92 percent of the schools do not have access to ICT materials or computers in accordance with basic education curriculum.

The initiative urged the State to provide ICT materials and computers to schools, provide potable drinking water for the majority of schools that lack these facilities, and ultimately ensure that adequate WASH facilities are in school to encourage girl-child educational enrolment. Dr Balarabe had assured that the State is committed to strengthening its workforce and welcome the support CODE to make it happen.

Follow The Money further empowered the School Monitoring Teams (SMTs) to effectively provide oversight on basic education spending in the state. Through this, the project impacted over 200,000 rural lives, and significantly reduced the number of out-of-school children in the focal LGAs.

The project titled Tracking UBE Spending in Kaduna State, sought to identify and highlight key issues of lack across schools in the LGAs especially in the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene, infrastructure and learning aids, ratio of teachers to pupils and the safety of the learning spaces for the children. 

Connected Development is an initiative that is passionate about empowering marginalised communities.