World Bank to Construct 150 Secondary Schools in Katsina 

• To train 13,000 teachers

Francis Sardauna in Katsina 

The World Bank, through its Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) project, has announced plans to construct 150 new secondary schools in Katsina State.

The World Bank Country Director, Mr. Shubham Chaudhuri, unveiled the plan when he received the Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, on a courtesy call at his office in Abuja.

He said the World Bank, through its AGILE project, would also renovate 300 existing secondary schools in the state, and train 13,000 teachers between 2023 to July 2025.

A statement issued to journalists Wednesday by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Radda, Mr. Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed, further quoted the World Bank chief as saying that 200 Katsina secondary schools would be connected with internet services.

Chaudhuri added that the bank would provide the 200 schools with 19KVA solar-power systems and desktop computers each, as well as the training of additional 9,000 teachers on digital literacy and remote learning.

According to him, “There is also a project we shall be undertaking for 17,000 Katsina school girls and female teachers, among others.”

Earlier, Governor Radda solicited the assistance of the World Bank to establish three model schools for gifted Katsina children from poor backgrounds, with a view to boost the enrollment figure of the girl-child in schools. 

He commended the World Bank for investing heavily in Katsina’s economy, adding that the bank’s intervention in key sectors in the state had tremendously helped the government.

He particularly mentioned the AGILE Project and appreciated the way it is being executed in Katsina, pointing out that the construction of 75 schools in the state by the bank was greatly commendable.

Radda, however, said he had already forwarded an executive bill to the state House of Assembly for the establishment of an ICT directorate to gather data about various sectors in the state.

The governor further revealed that he has forwarded a separate executive bill to the state lawmakers for the creation of an irrigation authority in the state.

This, he said, was geared towards engaging Katsina youths all-year round in farming, so as to curb criminality and other social vices in the state.