ACTIONAID International, an NGO, on Wednesday said it had earmarked $1.4million to fund education in Lagos and Sokoto states.

This was made known at the Baseline Validation meeting between representatives of Lagos Sate Ministry of Education and AictionAid Team.

Mr Celestine Odo, Manager, Governance, ActionAid Nigeria, said that the meeting was to validate the ‘Breaking Barrier” project which would run for four years to address the challenges facing the educational structure.

The ActionAid official said that the objective of the project was to reduce the barrier in education and provide a more inclusive education and providing education for all.

Odo said that Lagos was chosing for a pilot project because the state had gone far in terms of infrastructure than other states and Sokoto was very far behind.

“So we are now looking forward to Sokoto learning from Lagos and there are things that Lagos could learn from Sokoto.

“Such as the home grown School Feeding Projects, such exchange programmes will go a long way in breaking barriers.

“Aside from infrastructure, Lagos has gone a long way in establishing those things to take care of inclusive education which should be emulated by other states too.

“The $1.4 million is not enough but we are tailoring it and reducing the schools to the money available ,’’ Odo said.

According to him, that is why the focus of the project is to influence the government to raise more revenue to fund education.

He said that funding of education is not about government looking to generate revenue for education but allocating high percentage and seeing education as very important.

Also speaking, Mrs A.K Musa, Director of Education, BES-child Guidance, School Counseling and Special education Unit, said the state had specially trained teachers to help special needs children.

Musa said that the teachers as well as the the parents of children with special needs were trained by the government on how to use instructional materials.

She said that aside from the five existing inclusive schools, the state had 31 inclusive primary schools, seven junior schools and six senior schools with a teeming population.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ActionAid is an anti-poverty movement working in over 40 countries, promoting values and commitment in civil society, institutions and governments to achieve structural changes, eradicate injustices and poverty worldwide.

It works in areas of Education, Governance, Women’s’ Right, Health, Food and Agriculture. (NAN)

– Feb. 6, 2019 @ 18:55 GMT |