What was the state of education in Kwara State before now, and what is it like now?
Starting from the infrastructure, before we came on board in 2019, one of the major ways through which infrastructure was being taken care of across the country was through the universal basic educationYou would always pay your counterpart funds, and you get what is expected. For instance, when you pay N4 billion, you get another N4 billion. The last time such money was paid was in 2013 and 2014. We came in in 2019, which means that between 2014 and 2019 nothing was happening.
His Excellency, Mallam Abdulrazaq, did not wait; he paid from 2014 to 2020, and we were able to assess the grant.
I am happy to tell you that up till this moment, we haven’t defaulted at all. We have paid our own counterpart fund up to 2025, the third quarter.
Now, looking at the system, how were the students being taught before this administration came on board?
There was a huge concentration, a very imbalanced one, to be specific, on what was being taught here. Those in the urban centres, especially, had more concentration on them. The teachers would always be there for them. But in other parts of the states, what was being taught in Ilorin was not the same thing that was being taught in other parts of the state. So the students in Iorin were progressing well, while others were lagging behind, until Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq came and we came up with what we call KwaraLEARN.
Through Kwara LEARN, we have been able to ensure, up till this morning, that the same thing that is being taught in Ilorin is the same thing that is taught in Baruten; the same thing is being taught in Offa; and every other part of the state, and by every teacher, in 1603 primary schools. Every teacher has their own tab, and that tab tells you, this is the curriculum. These are the lesson notes. This is what’s to be taught today, and you have access to it like a week before then, so you can review and prepare the examples given in those lesson notes.
You can localise it in such a way that the students will understand it better, using examples like, if the teaching is in Ilorin, you use examples like Okesuna, Idiape, etc.
For those in Baruten, you can always use some areas that are peculiar to them.
The moment you enter the class, what you have on your tab is the same thing that other teachers across the state also have in their own tab. That is what will be taught, and it also gives us the opportunity to monitor who gets to the class and when, because it gives us real-time feedback on the teacher, whether he’s in the class now or he just got to the class, and when he left.
Everything will be recorded, because the moment you put on your tablet in that class with GPS, we have the coordinates and every other thing to know where you are when you open it, and the number of students in the class, and every other thing.
Kwara LEARN gives me the opportunity, as the Honorable Commissioner, to be able to interact with my teachers directly. I know who is in the class. If I click on your own school, I know who is there and who is not there.
‘Hello, Master. This is your Commissioner speaking? Why are you not in class?’ ‘I’m sorry, sir. I took permission from my HM. I have to do this. To do that.’
‘I hope somebody is in the class, taking care of the people now?’
‘Yes, sir.’
And sometimes I don’t have to wait for you to err; those who attend class promptly, I also call them to say, ‘Thank you for being committed to what we are doing. I can see everything green, green, green since the beginning of the term. His Excellency appreciates you.’
So that gives the opportunity to interact with them. And sometimes you call, they will tell you, ‘My tab is having a problem, that’s why it’s showing red on your own dashboard, sir.’
‘Okay, now let me greet the pupils. Good morning. Good morning, sir.’
So that would let me know what is happening in real time.
And how has that impacted the pupils?
Before we came on board, you hardly heard anything like pupils going for competitions, debates, winning and so on and so forth. I am happy to tell you that the President’s debates, which are normally organised for pupils and students in both primary, Junior Secondary and senior schools, won in 2022 , 2023, and 2024. In fact, we are the current champions.
The last two months, we were in Malaysia to represent Nigeria, and we won in the whole world. And presently, students, the senior ones, when they were in Abeokuta a few months ago, they came first in the whole of Nigeria, and at present, we are preparing for the President’s debate; they have a committee for it at the federal level. So now they are on their way to Kenya to represent Nigeria. They will be there by April 20 or so. So that’s where we are now, and I‘m proud to tell you that those who are going to Kenya now to represent Nigeria, all four of them, are from public schools. That’s the trophy they brought from Abeokuta behind you (pointing to a trophy). They brought this from Abeokuta, Ogun State; they are now going to Kenya to represent Nigeria.
Thank God, these students, some of them from Ilorin, some from Offa. It shows what we actually wanted to deal with– ensuring that the same opportunity Ilorin children have is the same opportunity the children in Offa and other parts of the state also have. It has impacted positively on us. And looking at our past, I mean, looking at how we are being ranked now, both in WAEC and NECO, and also, even better, the basic education stuff, we keep climbing. So the intervention and investment of our governor, Malam Abdulrazaq, is yielding positive results as far as education is concerned. One other area is the teachers.
How have you monitored the use of technology in schools, and how are the teachers coping?
Before we even go into the technology aspect, where we started from was to ensure that the recruitment exercise was right, ensuring that the teachers were technologically inclined, and everything else will be very easy.
Now, let me explain the recruitment exercise, the way we have changed it from what it used to be.
Before the outgoing administration came on board, people would sit down in the comfort of their rooms, and they would give them appointment letters.
But when His Excellency came on board, we introduced a very rigorous process before anyone could become a teacher in any part of Kwara State.
Using the last recruitment exercise as an example, after the announcement, around 29,000 applicants applied. Those who actually qualified to teach were 11,000 plus. All these 11,000 were invited to write a computer-based test to be sure that they were actually literate, as far as computers are concerned.
After the examination, 9000 came out of 11,000 plus, and over 5400 did very well. We did not stop at that, we now invited this 5000 plus for an interview.
It was that kind of one-on- one interview, like, it was peer teaching. Teach others. Let us see how you’re going to teach. That’s the chalk. That’s the board. After everything, we’re able to pick 1900 amongst them to be recruited. It did not stop at that. We did drug tests for them. The state paid for that to ensure that you do not abuse drugs; we cannot afford to leave our children in the hands of a drug addict. So after that, some were still sent away before we now came up with the last 1900 that were recruited last. So that gave us the opportunity to ensure that even if you want to train them, they are trainable.
So now, having gotten into the system together with those they met in the system, we keep giving them training after training. Last two months, the last one they had was on AI, how to use AI to generate questions, how to use AI to set questions for pupils and every other thing. We also trained them on how to use those tools as a teacher, to also read to be updated, as far as it is concerned.
So she’s the one now leading the training sessions across the state, teaching other teachers. The ministry is just supporting her. So it is easier for them when they see a co-teacher talking to them than bringing somebody from Abuja or bringing somebody from the university. We are using that woman to ensure that we motivate others, inspire them, so as to be up to date.
Still about infrastructure, what’s the number of schools you have built or renovated since you came on board?
Yes. As far as classrooms are concerned, we have done 1995 classrooms, and we are currently working on 149 schools as of this morning. So, already 1, 995 classrooms have been added to what we met on the ground.
Can you talk about student performance and the impact of your efforts on enrollment?
When we came on board, it showed then that there were more boys in the schools than the girls. So we knew there had to be an intervention.
That was why we keyed into Adult Girls Initiative Learning and Empowerment( AGILE). So, we keyed into that World Bank intervention to ensure that girls are more enrolled.
One of the components of AGILE is to start paying them stipends even while in school. So our girls in GSS one and SS earn nothing less than N40,000 per term. Because most of the parents will tell you, no, they have to go and hawk so that we get money. Let them come to school too. They will get money. Oh, yeah.
You pay girl students to come to school?
Yes, we pay those in JSS 1 and SS 1. Now we are compiling another list of names from JSS One and SS One. We’ll give you names. We pay students; you can interview some of the parents, if you have the time.
That is unbelievable, just to ensure that they keep coming to school?
Yes, they will get the money from JSS One to SS three. And those who started last year with SS One, they will get the money from SS One to SS Three. And now we are collating another 10,000. The last one we did was 32,000. Now we are doing 10,000 to ensure enrollment increases.
Has there been any improvement as a result of this development?
Yes, significantly, but I don’t have the data offhand.
Talking about the reforms under Abdulrahman, how would you describe the legacies that he’s leaving?
Honestly speaking, our greatest legacy to be sincere, as far as education is concerned, is our style of teachers’ recruitment; the moment you get that right, every other thing is okay.
This is the greatest legacy, because nobody can come tomorrow and say there’s no need for all these people.
For those who know what they are doing, those guys are motivating them. So if we build classrooms, if there are no qualified teachers, we are going to be having issues. If we say, okay, we want them to use tabs, we want them to be technologically savvy or whatever, but they do not know about it, we will be having issues. So our biggest legacy as far as education is concerned is our style of teachers’ recruitment, that’s the key.
Let me try to explain the nitty-gritty of the recruitment process.
We knew what we wanted from each local government area, so if applicants did not meet the requirements in their own local government area, they wouldn’t be recruited. Based on the assessment, there’s a subject allocation to each local government, so it’s not just about how many teachers we need in what areas. What subjects?
So even if you scored 70-80, over 100, and Biology is your field, but in your local government, we do not need a Biology teacher, you are not going anywhere.
So it’s not as if they failed, but what they want, so maybe we just need three, and you are the number fourth, and we have gotten the three. So we are sorry you have to go and wait.
And that also gives us a repository of qualified teachers. So whenever there is a gap we want to fill up, we go back to that data, now give us from that local government area they need, so, so, and it’s working fine for us. And looking at what His Excellency just did, paying them allowance in December, is also heartwarming.
If you have TRCN, 27.5% of your salary will be added to it. If you do not have that yet, it’s just 21%, so everybody wants to have that TRCN to be a qualified teacher. So it’s not just about encouraging the qualified teachers alone.
No, we’re also giving back to them. We started this January, because it was passed in December, and started in January, 27.5% for those who have TRCN, 21% for those who do not have it.
What are the challenges?
Proliferation of schools. Every politician wants to have a school in their own community. The question is how many pupils do you have? And you want the government to send teachers to those schools? Without considering how much it will cost the government to send teachers to those schools. When it is time for renovation as well, you expect us to spend 100 million naira on a school with 35 pupils, the same we would have spent on school with 1200 pupils. We have to look at it and say, ” How many students benefit from there?” And before you know it, there will be noise everywhere that “our local government is being left out.”
The question many of them fail to ask themselves is, “How many pupils do they have in the school in their local government?”
How has insecurity affected education in the state?
Significantly! At a point in time, we had to close down schools in 10 local government areas. We did that for so many weeks while other local government areas were learning, the children in those 10 local government areas were regrettably at home. We were not happy about that. We are still not happy about it. Yes, we have opened all the schools, but in some areas where these issues are, some parents have not gotten the guts yet to push out their wards to go to school.
We thought it was going to affect our registration and enrollment for WAEC; But we had 24,000 plus for WAEC this year. I have to give that to His Excellency for assisting the ministry in reaching out to parents to ensure that they register their wards for the examination.
We also reached out to WAEC to extend the time for us so that we could get more of them to enrol.
