Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s investments in the tech-driven KwaraLEARN initiative has continued to record success with improved learning outcomes and enrollment of pupils from 120,000 to 180,000 in the first two years, Mrs Laide Abel, Managing Director of the programme, said on Tuesday.
KwaraLEARN is an acronym for Kwara State Leading Education Achievement and Reform Now, involving government’s huge investment in modern technology to empower teachers and support learning in basic classes.
Abel said at a stakeholders’ retreat marking its second anniversary that KwaraLEARN has improved literacy and numeracy skills of pupils in Kwara basic schools by at least 50%.
The retreat saw different departmental make presentations to analyze their experiences on the fields and in tech-based situation rooms in different parts of the state.
The retreat was attended by top government officials, including the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Hon. Muhammed Baba Salahu; Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development Sa’adatu Moddibo Kawu; Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development Aliyu Kora Sabi; Commissioner for Communications Bola Olukoju; Chairman; State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Prof Sheu Raheem Adaramaja; Accountant General of the State Alhaji AbdulGaniyu Sani.
“So far, we have seen a lot of impacts, and I will say in two years, we are happy with the results we are getting. For instance, the number of our school children who could not read has been reduced by over 50 percent, while the number of our children who could not solve simple numeracy sums has been reduced by over 50 percent. We will continue to do more to achieve more positive results,” the Managing Director told reporters on the sideline of the retreat in Ilorin.
“Another area that I must talk about is the improvement in the enrollment of children in schools. The school enrollment has increased to over 180,000 children from primary 1 to 6 across all public primary schools in the state from 120,000 when the programme commenced.
“That shows the impacts and acceptability of the programme. Similarly, absenteeism has also dropped by 50 per cent because everyone understands that they are being monitored directly from different situation rooms.”
Laide commended the administration for being passionate about educational development and appreciated AbdulRazaq for his trust in her team.
Hon. Baba praised the government for investing so much to turn around the education sector in the state, saying the outcome has shown a clear departure from the past.
“KwaraLEARN project is very promising, although in the Education sector you cannot do it all at a time. Rome was not built in a day. So, we still have some gaps, but it is a clear shift from the ugly past,” he said.
“We sincerely thank His Excellency Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq for the right investments in education and many other sectors.”
Sa’adatu, for her part, said the KwaraLearn initiative has been extremely impactful, while the progress recorded so far has been very encouraging.
“It has really improved the learning outcome tremendously across board. We saw more of these excellent results in the recent examinations at that level. We have also been able to check absenteeism in the classroom. So, the programme has been very impactful,” she said.
Kora appreciated the Governor for creating an enabling environment for the programme to thrive and how it also benefits the people at the grassroots, saying such development is in fulfillment of his campaign promises.
Adaramaja said the programme has recorded a lot of successes in terms of teachers’ attendance, content delivery, and the use of technology in driving the education system in the state.
“Today, we are here to x-tray the gains of KwaraLEARN after two years of its adoption in the state. It is so far, so good,” he said.
Adaramaja said the retreat afforded the opportunity to identify some areas that needed further improvements.
