As part of measures by the Kwara State Government to ensure that every child is given solid foundation, achieve their full potential and compete favourably with their peers across the globe, the state government has launched KwaraLEARN.
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KwaraLEARN (Leading Education Achievement and Reform Now), the transformative agenda for education in Kwara State, was signed into reality by Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq in November 2021.
Addressing a press conference on Friday in Ilorin, the state capital, Shehu Raheem Adaramaja, a professor and chairman of Kwara SUBEB, said since the governor’s action, “major activities have been implemented in the background, putting everything in place for our children in Kwara to start experiencing world-class learning at the beginning of the new school term on May 16,
2022.
“KwaraLEARN could not have come at a better time, given the challenges education is facing in Nigeria as captured by a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report delivered during a recent programme.
“UNICEF had lamented the dire situation of education in Nigeria and what it portends for the country in the nearest future. It highlighted the poor learning outcomes in Nigerian primary schools as not being adequate to produce individuals contributing to Nigeria’s
economy in the future.
“The KwaraLEARN intervention by the Governor Abdulrazaq’s administration is a public education transformation programme to improve teaching and learning using innovative technology, data-driven platforms, high-quality learning materials, effective training and continuous coaching and support for teachers and school
administrators.
“Before its kickoff on May 16, 2022 when the third term of the current academic session begins, KwaraLEARN has made significant progress, with the Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB) ensuring the implementation goes well.
“The programme will commence across 365 primary schools in Baruten, Offa, Ilorin East, and Ilorin West local governments with critical achievements recorded in academics, governance, stakeholder engagements, operations, school inspection, technology, job creation, leadership and development.
“Starting with governance, the Kwara State Ministry of Education, KwaraSUBEB and our technical partner, NewGlobe, developed a project communication and coordination plan to guide the management of the programme.
“Today, KwaraLEARN has completed academic field studies in randomly selected schools to learn about teachers’ English fluency and proficiency, pupil oral reading fluency, and foundational numeracy.”
The SUBEB boss, who acknowledged the foresight and commitment of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq in
birthing the life-changing educational programme, which according to him is the third of its kind in Nigeria, further stated that “KwaraLEARN’s key achievements in operations and technology include the delivery of
4,329 teacher tablets and smartphones, procurement of 250 blackboards, hiring of IT operations team, set up of teacher tablets and validation of tech applications in schools.
“The induction training, which is a pivotal element of KwaraLEARN, concludes its first wave today (April 29 2022). Since its commencement on April 19 2022 at Queen Elizabeth School, Ilorin, 1813 teachers and headteachers from across 227 schools in Baruten and Ilorin West LGAs have participated.
“Our technical partner, NewGlobe has done a tremendous job in ensuring that participants are on the right teaching trajectory by deploying experienced personnel and facilities such as teachers’ smartphones, tablets and
applications for the exercise.
“It is worthy of note that the teachers have shown great enthusiasm and a keen interest in
becoming a better version of themselves during the course of the training. The second wave of the induction training is to commence on May 5 2022 and is expected to have over 1500 participants from Offa and Ilorin East LGAs.
“This programme is also creating a long socioeconomic value chain that benefits Kwarans. 43 job offers have been made, while 38 full-time staff have been hired so far. Currently, we are training 3500 teachers drawn from across the state who will implement this programme beginning in May.
“KwaraLEARN will demonstrate that, with the right innovation, training, materials and support, government schools can deliver radically better learning outcomes for children.
“With the right investments so far made and more to be committed, this success can and will be seen in a very short number of years, so that this generation of children will have the potential to transform the state.”
