Kwara Govt, Japan's Agency To Partner On Basic Education

By Lawal Merit Ifeoma

Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq met with a team from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Tuesday to discuss a partnership to develop basic education in the state.

The JICA team is in Kwara to explore how to support the state in different sectors, especially in education and agriculture. Kwara had recently been named alongside FCT Abuja as beneficiary state of JICA interventions owing to its commitment to basic education development.

During the meeting, Governor AbdulRazaq said that his administration has invested so much in school infrastructure and human capital development, but that more interventions are still required to consolidate on the gains in the sector.

He commended JICA for their offer of partnership, which he said will complement his administration's efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning outcomes in public schools.

"We are excited that you are here," the Governor said. "Your visit will support us in fixing some of the deficits in the education sector. We can definitely partner to improve our basic education because nothing is perfect, and we have some deficiencies like out-of-school children and concerns around girl-child education, among others. We are trying as much as we can to fortify our education sector. The better the education, the better the global economy, and the better our security will be generally."

JICA's team lead, Matsuzaki Mizuki, said that the agency is focused on improving the quality of education, especially at the basic level.

"We are here to see how we can support your basic education," he said. "We have learned a lot from the Executive Chairman of KWSUBEB. He told us what you have done and some of the challenges you have. We are to inspect the facilities to see things ourselves, and after that, we will go back to Japan and continue discussion on how we can support your state in basic education."

The choice of Kwara state was informed by the report of greater commitment of AbdulRazaq's administration in educational growth, Mizuki later told journalists after inspecting schools.

He applauded the administration for the warm reception and for championing the education reforms, among other developmental strides.