Even though education is a basic right and a prerequisite for poverty alleviation, children’s access to education, especially in rural Nigeria is still lower than in urban areas and the quality of education is poorer.
Continued inability of rural population, especially children, to access quality basic education has resulted in poor quality of life relative to the urban centres and continues to prevent the country from achieving its United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) .
Rural educational facilities are either completely absent or plagued by abysmally poor infrastructure. Nigeria allocated a paltry 7.05 per cent of its national budget to the education sector in 2018, and only 8.4 per cent in 2020. This is far below the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) recommended 15 to 20 per cent for developing nations. Not surprisingly, in many rural communities across Nigeria, decrepit educational facilities, lack of learning materials, and inadequate staff are the norm. Nigeria has the highest population of out-of-school pupils in the world, approximately 13.2 million in 2016.
Awe is one of 13 LGAs in Nasarawa State and is comprised of 11 wards of which Jangaru is one. Over 70% of residents of Awe engage in small scale farming cultivating produce such guinea corn, beans, soya beans, millet, maize, rice, cassava and yam, while the rest
participate in cattle rearing as a means of livelihood.
There is only one government primary school in Jangaru and only 4 teachers served 100 learners in 2016. The educational facility is dilapidated and underequipped. Children spend their school time under trees. The school is hardly adequate to efficiently and
effectively serve the educational needs of the community.
Many children from this community walk long distances to other villages and towns to access a relatively descent educational facility. For many of these young children, the result is chronic fatigue and lateness, leading to poor performance, diminished interest and ultimately dropping out. Unfortunately, the lack adequate educational facility is also being used by many parents as an excuse to keep their children at home for household chores or farm work, instead of risking the dangerous daily long-distant trek to school. The situation in Awe is a microcosm of a larger phenomenon in rural Nigeria which is retarding the nation’s development.
Our proposed project seeks to provide an educational facility to bridge the educational gap of rural communities and urban communities in the Jangaru, Awe LGA. The facility will include modern classroom block, library and laboratory, ICT center, playground, sports facilities and art studio built on 3,000 square meters land area and will cover grades from kindergarten through primary 5.
Our Comprehensive Primary School initiative will deliver a modern educational facility
in Jangaru, Awe LGA, Nasarawa State, which will provide access to a decent primary
educational service for that community. Consistent with the Foundation’s mission, this
initiative among other benefits will:
- Make educational services available and obtainable to rural population of Jangaru, Awe Local Government of Nasarawa State.
- Ensure that distance from urban centers does not constitute a barrier to basic educational services for the people of Jangaru, Awe LGA.
- Improve the social well-being of children from this community.
- Provide basic skills such as reading, writing and numeracy, which will have a positive effect on income levels.
- Guarantee that young girls and boys growing up in rural communities are not permanently disadvantaged because of lack of proper educational services.
- Attract the needed workforce for educational services to Jangaru.
- Additional outputs/outcomes are provided in the project informational video.
Construction Financing Model:
- Privately financed by Foundation’s partners and donors.
- Required pre-construction and construction financing - N180,000,000.00 ($400,000.00).
- Pre-construction and construction timeline - August 2021 to August 2022.
- Estimated Delivery date: August 2022.
Operational Sustainability Model:
- Public, private partnership (PPP) model.
- Sourcing for funding for equipment and staffing – December 2021 – April 2022
- Equipment and plant Installations and Recruitment of personnel - August to December 2022)
- Commissioning – December 2022.
